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Let’s Work Together

stavros.didakis@nyu.edu
Teaching, Workshops

Sensing the City

A Project on Psychogeography, Wearable Sensing, and Localisation

Nanjing University of the Arts, Nanjing, China

Module: DAT503 Reflexive Design

Class: BA Digital Media (Game Design) – Year 3

This workshop invited students to explore the computationally-enhanced urban landscape, and how digital information is utilised as a creative medium to generate speculative and innovative artefacts. The students were challenged to answer through their practice important questions related to the city of Nanjing, and create scenarios for sensing and augmented systems, investigating how new media and communication technologies can be used to enhance our understanding of our surrounding urban space. An important criterion was for students to provide a platform for merging the past and the future, the physical with the virtual, and the individual with the collective. During this 9-week module, advanced topics in programming and media design were covered, including 3D modeling and animation, programming, physical computing, locative media and telecommunication systems, game engines, and Augmented Reality (AR).

The students’ first task was to select a site within the city of Nanjing and do a thorough investigation by theoretical research on sensing and augmented cities, psychogeography, design thinking, and field research practices, in order to understanding the location, its needs and problems, and identify imaginative concepts for their media developments. Following that, each group started building its concept by utilizing contemporary artistic and technological tools and methods for creating innovative digital media work. During the development phase, the students created a range of artefacts, from original artworks, 3D models, videos, animations, databases, and sensing systems. The tools that were mainly used include: Photoshop, SAI, Blender, 3DsMax, JavaScript, Arduino, Unity3D, Vuforia, Mapbox.

The final works provided a rich range of outcomes; here, a few of them are summarised:

  • Sound City: Location-based reactive mobile phone application that generates specific audiovisual content to match predefined areas in the city of Nanjing.
  • Urban Memory: The project uses an AR application to visualize in 3D historical sites that belong to the cultural heritage of Nanjing, with an objective to raise awareness and better inform the public comprehensively.
  • Shireson: Game with main purpose to allow users find virtual monsters hidden in specific locations. The intention of this work is to help the user learn about the mythical stories included in the book “The Classic of Mountains and Seas”.
  • City Sentiment: Speculative work that demonstrates a near future where XR devices allow us to visualize the emotion of the citizens. The city becomes completely transparent, unifying individuality, and transforming itself into a vessel of human psyche.
  • Still Walking: A website that uses a realtime 3D visualization system to display the flow rate of visitors in traditional sites of the city of Nanjing. With the use of a remote sensing system and a database, the project manages not only to offer an engaging visualization, but also to provide an intelligent information system for users and visitors.

Module Leader: Stavros Didakis (Associate Professor, University of Plymouth)

Supporting Lecturers: Ma Jiangwei, Yuzhou Zhu, Ziqiao Wang (Nanjing University of the Arts)

Students:

  • Group 1: Gu Rong Zhang, Wang Yu Ge, Wang Fei, Xie Shi Yu, Qian Xin Yu
  • Group 2: Xiao Yu Cheng, Xu Qing Yuan, Yuan Run Tao, Ni Xiao, Shen Yang
  • Group 3: Ren Zheng, Qiu Yi Ming, Xu Jun Jie, Ye Wei Xian, Li Hui Qin
  • Group 4: Jiang Xiao Tian, Zhou Wen Xuan, Hu Heng Ming, Wei Lan Yi, Zheng Pin Yi
  • Group 5: Wang Yu Ting, Wang Zhi Ming, Tian Xi Rui, Yao Xin Yi, Chen Bo Yu
  • Group 6: Ding Shu, Qu Qi, Li Xue Yi, Dong Zi Yu, Wei Yu Hao
  • Group 7: Zhang Xin Zhi, Zhang Rui Yi, Tian Cheng Yue, Shen Yi Wen, Sun Liang
  • Group 8: Gu Kai Lun, Yan Wei Jing, Yao Chang, Chen Yi Lu, Wang Xian Zhi
  • Group 9: Zhou Zi Xi, Shao Yun Qing, Sun Ying, Xie Ruo Bing, Ji Xiao Wei
  • Group 10: Sun Jie, Xu Jie, Shi Shi, Qian Jing
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