Something May Answer

Interactive Projection Installation

Something May Answer is a family-oriented, sound-triggered interactive installation created for a garden bed light trail. Visitors speak into microphones to awaken and summon imagined creatures from the surrounding forest. Projected onto translucent screens nestled among the trees, these creatures appear to emerge from the landscape itself, transforming a simple interaction into a shared moment of discovery, wonder, and magic for children and families.

Credits

  • Creative & Art Direction, Sound & Animation Production: Lois He

  • TouchDesigner and customized software interactive system: Vio Zhu

  • Fabrication Production Partner: Enddle Zheng, Long, Rita Qiu, Ivor Xiaorui Zeng

  • Projection Mapping Consultant Professor Motomichi Nakamura

  • Documentation: Lois He

  • Special thanks to Olbrich Botanical Gardens staff Melissa Jeanne, Mark Penisten and David Antonacci. Judith & Howard for hosting us.

Interaction
Description

Each microphone is paired with a projection screen, creating a direct and intuitive interaction. As visitors speak, particles immediately respond to their voice, gathering and rippling with the sound. Sustained sound gradually summons a magical creature—the longer visitors engage, the closer it comes to fully appearing. Occasionally, creatures briefly flicker in the darkness, hinting at their presence and inviting further interaction.

1. Idle State:

In silence, the scrims display a tranquil world of magical plants and softly glowing vegetation. Gentle movements, drifting particles, and subtle light create the feeling of a hidden enchanted landscape waiting to awaken.

2. Sound Reactive State:

Voices bring the environment to life. Audio-reactive particles surge, swirl, and gather in real time, transforming sound into visible energy that spreads throughout the installation. As visitors continue interacting, the environment becomes increasingly vibrant, signaling that something is about to emerge.

3. Creature Appearing State:

As the energy builds, imaginative magical creatures gradually emerge from within the vegetation. Their appearance responds directly to the audience's collective participation, creating the sensation that each interaction helps reveal a hidden world. As visitors continue to contribute sound, more creatures may appear throughout the installation before the environment gradually returns to its calm, magical state.

Interactive
Video Playback
System

We rendered six animation states for each animal and built a real-time playback system in TouchDesigner that dynamically responds to the duration of each interaction.

The system tracks how long the participant is speaking and triggers different animation sequences accordingly. Shorter interactions result in subtle movements, while longer conversations gradually reveal more active and expressive animations. Each sequence was designed with matching start and end frames, allowing the system to transition smoothly between states regardless of the interaction length and create a continuous, seamless response.