Fuguo's
Media Space

Inspiration

COVID-19 has been going around worldwide since the beginning of the year 2020. Due to the implementation of COVID-19 epidemic prevention measures worldwide, human interaction and communication are shifting to virtual environments, and people are spending more time in front of screens than ever before.

Inspired by this reality, we came up with the concept of a synthetic forest. Forest is a typical scenario of Nature, which is often regarded as the opposite of technology. A synthetic forest stands at the intersection of the two concepts, and prompts us to think: beyond this dualism, is there another possibility for a future in which humans coexist with nature and technology?

By building this synthetic forest, we wanted to visualize our imagination of a future filled with creatures manipulated by technology. Without in-person contact in real life, creatures (including humans) affect each other via technology as media. Our traces are then digitized and used to power a virtual environment that attempts to simulate every detail of our surroundings.

Ideation & Production

The project consists of a digital screen, showcasing the virtual environment, and a physical setting in front of the screen for player interaction.

Virtual Scene

I was in charge of the virtual scene design in Unity3D. To enhance the synthetic style, the scene would be a composition of synthetic elements including artificial grass and boletus with metallic texture.

I implemented the grass painting tool and 'brushed' a layer of grass on the terrain.
I implemented the grass painting tool and 'brushed' a layer of grass on the terrain.
Then, I added lighting to the scene. The grass is pink after the lighting is applied, giving a dreamy and unreal vibe.
Then, I added lighting to the scene. The grass is pink after the lighting is applied, giving a dreamy and unreal vibe.
Lastly, I added particle systems and Tyndall effect to make the scene more layered and dreamy.
Lastly, I added particle systems and Tyndall effect to make the scene more layered and dreamy.

The boletus were designed by my teammates.

Physical Scene

Green artificial grass carpet
Green artificial grass carpet.
Used pallets in teal
Used pallets in teal.
We laid out the pallets and grass in the lobby area in front of an LED screen
We laid out the pallets and grass in the lobby area in front of an LED screen.

As cues of interaction, we made several cushions and placed them on the palettes. These cushions each contains a pressure sensor, which passes pressure signals via OSC to control the boletus in the virtual scene.

Cusion making
Cushions in scene
Documentation photo of an interactive scenario.