The Blue Paradox

Junior Creative Technologist for Radical Media
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago IL

March - July 2023

Project Description

The Blue Paradox is an ambitious and immersive exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. created by Radical Media, in partnership with Ogilvy and SC Johnson.

The exhibit focuses on the past, present, and future state of the ocean plastic crisis. Consisting of 5 main rooms, visitors are introduced by an immersive film about the majesty and fragility of our planet's oceans, followed by shocking statistics about global plastic consumption, possible solutions, and finally community and political engagement.

My role in this project as a Junior Creative Technologist included a number of crucial pre-production and installation tasks, focused on the development of over a dozen unique TouchDesigner patches that run the exhibit.

Under the coordination of Sean Leo and Cam Vokey, I worked alongside Dave Tandem and Trevor Grove for the duration of the project. Our team coordinated with AV vendors, construction crews, production deadlines, and museum schedules to install everything on-site from May-July 2023.

The scale of this project required each member of the team to be focused on different areas of the exhibition week-by-week and day-by-day in order to achieve the final vision. Below you can see a map of the exhibition and a breakdown of my involvement.

Project Highlights

The Blue Paradox consists of a number of rooms which guests move through sequentially:
‍
1. The Knuckle / Ramp
2. Staff Podium
3. Pulse Point
4. The Wave
5. Microplastic Particles (Set/Reset)
6. Interactive Plinths
7. Conveyors / Tickers
8. Communal Action / Pledge Wall
9. Portholes

Light blue indicates high levels of involvement in pre-production and on-site, including TouchDesigner programming, GUI design, troubleshooting, and final execution.

Dark blue indicates installation-only involvement, including content management and network integration.

‍Dark grey indicates limited involvement as troubleshooting support.

'The Wave'

Photo courtesy of Radical Media

Shortly after entering the exhibition with a timed ticket, visitors are lead down a winding corridor to a waiting area just before the first experience.

The exhibition begins with a 3-minute film about the power and majesty of our planet's oceans- contextualizing the importance of the issue and immersing visitors in the fantastic imagery of ocean life around the world.

The room itself is a mirrored cube, with a massive LED floor, which curves upward into a special configuration of hanging LED titles, which is called The Wave.

My responsibilities included pixel mapping, TouchDesigner programming for content playback and show control, as well as designing a back of house GUI for testing and maintenance purposes.

I also assisted Dave Tandem in rigging, calibrating, and testing the Oak-D IR cameras for motion tracking and interactive playback in Notch.

Entryway walkthrough + Immersive movie playback

Oak-D infrared sensor for motion tracking during interactive "attract" state

Interactive "attract" state walkthrough

Pixel Mapping behind the scenes

Photo credit / Radical Media

'The Communal Action Wall'

Photo credit / Radical Media

The Communal Action action wall is a massive U-shaped structure in the final room of the exhibiton, consisting of 11x 4k Planar monitors, and one large TouchDesigner server for playback.

In order to ensure smooth playback across such a large display surface, I programmed the server to utilize Nvidia's Mosaic and Affinity features. This allowed us to take advantage of TouchDesigner Pro's hardware lock and avoid frame jitters and tearing.

It was also my responsibility to map content that was provided by creative and sync playback with the audio team.

Photo credit / Radical Media

'The Portholes'

Photo credit / Radical Media

The Portholes are a group of interactive kiosks at the end of the exhibit intended to connect visitors to additional resources on the ocean plastic crisis.

The kiosks are all identical TouchDesigner builds, installed behind the wall and linked to kinetic porthole frames. It was my responsibility to program the user interaction in TouchDesigner based on the graphic treatment provided by the creative team.

Once we arrived on site, I was able to coordinate with the scenic team from Chicago Scenic Studios, and test the kinetic elements of the kiosk- which included a large ring bearing, gasket, and rotary encoder.

I also ensured that the Arduino was receiving signal from the encoder, and built a failsafe in the event of encoder failure for the sake of long-term maintenance.

Photo credit / Radical Media

Backstage GUI for Porthole maintenance and encoder control- made in TouchDesigner

'The Wave'

The heart of the installation is a series of interactive "time portals," each representing a different historical era. These portals are equipped with motion sensors, touchscreens, and augmented reality interfaces, allowing visitors to step into different time periods and explore them in an engaging and informative way.

The Portholes

Our team has meticulously choreographed the installation process to ensure that every element seamlessly fits into the overarching narrative. We've worked closely with artists, historians, and technologists to guarantee that every aspect, from lighting and sound to digital displays and physical artifacts, complements one another perfectly.