Just Right: Three Immersive Installations that Engage the Senses
Infiniti wanted to create a memorable reveal event for their new P61Q vehicle, highlighting its unique features and customization options. As part of the MssngPces production team, I worked closely with Aramique, Volvox, and a massively talented crew of collaborators to develop three immersive installations that would engage attendees' senses—Feel, Hear and See—and showcase the car's cutting-edge technology.
As the Tech Director, I was responsible for technical concept development and research for the proposal, software development and implementation for one of three installation (Feel), as well as oversight and on-site installation of the Feel and Hear installations.
We had 2 weeks to develop our concepts, and 5 weeks to build them.
CLIENT
Infiniti
ROLE
Tech Direction, Concept Development, Software Dev, Install
TECHNOLOGY
TouchDesigner, Holosonic Directional Speakers., Kinect Azure, Terabee Thermal Camera, DMX Dimmer, Pixelator
STUDIOS
Agency: Publicis | PxP
Production: Mssng Peces
Fabrication & AV: Volvox Labs (also shop drawings, 3D design, and concept + production of SEE program)
CORE TEAM
Aramique Krauthammer (Director)
Jennifer Baker (Lead Producer)
Ryan Hawthorne (Design Director)
Volvox Labs (Javier Cruz, Kamil Nawratil)
Dave Tennent (Creative Tech for HEAR)
Gary Gunn (Composer & Sound Design)
Matt Felsen (Pitch Tech Consultation)
Volvox Labs, fabrication
Kamil Nawratil, Design Lead
Javier Cruz, Executive Producer
Gilad Dor, Producer & LED Tech
Zyia Zhang, Physical Designer
Kiril Bejoulev, Architectural Designer
Matthew Ross, Creative Tech
Raphael Chang, Creative Tech
PHOTOGRAPHY
THE FEEL INSTALLATION
Feel: Personal Climate Zones
To showcase the P61Q's customizable climate zones and IR temperature detection, this experience incorporated:
- Thermal camera to measure attendees' temperatures
- DMX-controlled fans to provide a cooling effect
- Kinect Azure for point clouds and presence detection
- Projected visuals onto layers of transparent scrims
- Particle animations that respond to wind and temperature
- Audio feedback
Developing most of the installation remotely, I used previsualization techniques like an custom LED pixel-pitch simulator to ensure that our aesthetic would translate seamlessly to the final hardware.
Additionally, I created a central interface to manage sensor calibration, animation timings, wind speeds, and monitor each parameter's status during development and the live event.
During development, Volvox built a simple projector mockup to test the scrims and Ryan Hawthorne's motion graphics flanking the generative LED panel content on each side. I worked on-site to tweak camera calibration, LED visuals and projector alignment.
TECH DIRECTION & CONCEPTING
Concept & Research
For the proposal, I assembled a list of tech that could be used to as inputs and outputs for each, participated in concepting brainstorms and put together technical narratives for the final presentation.
Planning & Proposal
To make sure each concept could be executed on time and with the intended functionality, I put together estimates, hardware matrices, and system diagrams demonstrating how everythign works.
