BEATS
An immersive light experience that shapes time by the rhythm of your heartbeat.
Visitors are surrounded by a full-room projection that responds to their real-time heartbeats. It invites them to explore how we perceive and experience the passage of time, where each person's rhythm offers a different sense of time passage. Each beat becomes a moment preserved, forming a timeline that is entirely your own. This serves as a reminder that time is not just something we observe but something we live and experience.
Team
Timeline
Role
Tools
Individual
6 weeks, Spring 2025
Spatial Designer
Touch Designer, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Illustrator, Figma
CONCEPT
EXPERIENCE OVERVIEW
01. Introduction
As the visitor steps into the space, their pulse brings the room to life by sending ripples of light particles across the floor with each pulse. The floor projection follows the visitor throughout the space.
02. Visualizing Time
The wall projection responds to changes in the visitor's heart rate, creating glowing spheres that reflect current beats per minute (bpm). Each sphere becomes a visual mark of the moment, forming a chain that records time.
03. Shared Memory
Visitors become part of a growing archive of heartbeats. Each person's chain of beats, represented in a different color, becomes a collective memory of time.
04. Takeaway
The journey concludes with a personalized physical printout that summarizes the visitor's personal recording of time.
LIGHT EXPERIMENTATION
low-fidelity prototypes to explore different projection and light movement in space
STORYBOARD
DESIGNING AN RESPONSIVE SYSTEM
consider how visitors navigate to create a smoother transition between spaces
I explored a multi-user experience where sound-reactive visuals follows visitors throughout the space.
Linking Arduino input to TouchDesigner to generate a pulsing floor pattern, later refining it into a wireless system for greater flexibility.
Particle spheres created in TouchDesigner react to heart rate input, turning BPM into a visual representation of time.
Made sure to test the projections throughout the process to get a better sense of colors, scale, and overall experience.
TECH DIAGRAM
a break drown of how the system works
PHYSICAL TAKEAWAY
visitors receive a summary of the experience as they leave the space
The printout includes each visitor’s average BPM, heart rate data, date of visit, and total beats recorded during their time in the showroom. The two-layer design reinforces the concept: background particles represent the flow of time, while the cut-outs frame its passage.
POSTER
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