The Process
Development for The Consumer Culture Garden, the current project EAT is working on, began in June 2004, and originally opened at The North Carolina Museum of Art in September 2005. Our process was based on the Eames design process, reflecting an iterative exploration into a wide range of solutions for every aspect of the installation.
The pond structure was sketched out in a variety of ways, to include curved and square pond shapes, a bridge, walk-up and a walk-around structures, and multiple raised platforms with individual projections. Similarly, lighting and projection substances were considered and tested throughout the year, as well as flooring and wall treatments.
The projected space was created using Macromedia Flash, which allows for interactive sensors to engage a user through interaction with the environment. The 3-dimensional fish were first developed with Maya, 3-D animation software that allowed us to project both QuickTime movies and graphic images onto their animated forms. Developing the fish movements was a process that took a year, as we constantly evaluated the "swim" of a real koi versus our animated version. The challenge continued as these were then brought into Flash and had to give the illusion of swimming with other koi.
Audio tracks were developed in Logic from both recordings and synthesized sound. Sounds were matched to particular interactions (e.g. sensor activation, fish swimming toward viewer) and audio tracks were matched to previously developed Quicktime movies and vice versa (i.e. Quicktime movies were developed to match previously developed audio tracks). No actual fish were harmed in the making of any movie or audio track.