Karoline Winzer UCL Digital Portfolio

KAROLINE WINZER

MArch Design for Performance and Interaction Portfolio

My work is about creating story-led, tech-driven, human-centred experiences.

I do creative coding electronics/ physical computing experiential design

3D design, animation & video editing building

I love immersive audience interactions teamwork across disciplines education & social causes creative problem solving

MYCELIUM

An interaction which explores the collaborative power of mycelium while encouraging people to connect.

Under our feet, networks of fungal roots called mycelium connect forests. These networks are alive, collaborative, and allow trees to communicate with one another underground.

This interactive tactile experience asks participants to connect abstracted “trees”, which triggers lights and sounds using physical computing technology. This visualises the power of connection and the mycelial network.

Exhibited in University of Arts London Degree Shows 2022 , XRArt Fest 2022 , Peckham Digital 2023, and British Computer Society for real-time interaction with participants.

Participants work together with bioelectricity to connect the network.

The physics concept of a human circuit allows participants to safely connect the “trees” with bioelectricity, using nothing more than touch, just like the mycelium.

Lights and sounds inspired by mushrooms are triggered when connected.

The installation works both in the daylight and in the darkness.

Behind the Scenes - Mockups and Prototyping

Testing and Production

See behind-the-scenes video

Play-through video for the MYCELIUM experience.

The installation was a hit for participants, with several people coming back multiple times with friends and family to try it.

Shortlisted for the Peter Cannings Memorial Award, 2022.

See the play-through video here

La Noche

A collaborative multimedia performance design for musician Jozé, performed at La Noche event in London 2022.

Performance was part of a first-of-its-kind event showcasing Latinx music, fashion, and art, hosted by the University of the Arts London Latinx Collective.

The team consisted of three people, including myself. From start to delivery, I was responsible for working on the visual concept, creating the 10-minute projected animation and designing/ building the electronically controlled shoes.

by

Jozé’s performance at the La Noche Event. Each song in the set had a unique colour which was reflected in the room lighting, animation, and shoes.

Shoes were synced to the pulses of light in the projected animation to make the performance visually and physically engaging.

See a clip of the performance here

See a clip of the animation here

performance design creative computing

Behind the Scenes - Process and Responsibilities

SPARK

An interactive way to bring joy to dark winter months while repurposing unused storefronts.

The dark winter months in London are often difficult for city-dwellers, resulting in Seasonal Affective Disorder and low moods known as Winter Blues.

SPARK uses motion tracking and projection to mount an interactive installation in unused storefronts near major transport hubs, allowing commuters and city-dwellers to add a spark of interactive fun to an otherwise dark day.

My responsibilities for this project included designing the concept, researching, coding the interactive experience, and creating promotional material.

Promotional Video and live web experience version of SPARK.

Coded in javascript for audience access outside the physical installation.

Halo-like camera reads audience hand positions in the dark.

See the proposal video here

Interaction changes depending on whether one or two hands are used, opening up potential for collaboration. web coding video-editing

Turn on Webcam and Interact with the Web Experience Here

Behind the Scenes - Concept, Prototyping and Experience Design

Experience design maps and code. Motion tracking allows participants to control their environment with nothing more than their hands.

Experience maps trace audience emotions.

When the participant raises two hands or works with another person, they trigger different effects like color changes and new swirling motions.

Experience design intended to facilitate surprise and joy.

Proposed as a way to revitalise commuter routes in cities by using abandoned storefronts.

Locations were chosen based on carefully considered user research and commuter paths and placed near major transportation hubs.

SYNC

A game that gives the concept of empathy a visual by asking players to synchronise their heartbeats.

Based on the concept of interpersonal synchronisation, the phenomenon in which people who are empathetic towards one another can synchronise their heartbeats.

The game uses live data from two pulse sensors, which work together with lights, sound, and an Arduino computing board to challenge players to synchronise their heartbeats.

Responsibilities for this project included conducting research, building and prototyping electronics, designing the game, and creating promotional graphics.

Close ups of packaging design and branding for SYNC: Illuminating Empathy.

Top Row: publicity images displaying the concept of empathy, the game itself, and the electronics behind it.

Bottom Row: Packaging and internal layout of the game.

Promotional video for SYNC: Illuminating Empathy.

VFX and editing done in After Effects and Premiere Pro.

See the proposal video here

Behind the Scenes - Building and Testing

OpUS

A web game to help heart surgery patients and their families to understand AI-guided procedures.

With the advent of new AI technologies, heart surgeries are becoming more sophisticated and less invasive. However, surgeries are still scary and sometimes hard to understand. This game allows players to “play” as an AI probe entering the heart and remove blockages from major arteries. This is a parallel to what the actual probe sees and does in the body and eases fears about the procedure.

The project was exhibited at the Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS)SURGE online.

Accurate, accessible, and collaborative across disciplines.

The experience mimics what an AI probe “sees” and sounds like in the heart, informed by ultrasound tests by Dr. Colchester and his team. The experience included sound from the experiments.

Clear navigation gave audiences the opportunity to leave the experience or find out more.

I created an interactive user interface for the medical team that allowed them to finetune the experience and its accuracy to their liking in real-time.

Snapshots of gameplay and interactions.

Players search the artery for blockages and constrictions. When they appear, players can remove the blockages.

Mouse-controlled “probe” changes the colour and texture of the experience, mimicking ultrasound measurements of the real life technology.

The writing tone makes players feel like adventurers, empowering them to engage with the procedure.

See a play-through of the game here

game design three.js

Adaptando

A physical computing game which uses a soundscape and a gesturecontrolled robot to mimic the process of adaptation for immigrants.

Players listen to a soundscape reflecting real-life events while navigating a robot around a course. The controls mimic adaptation by changing randomly throughout the experience.

The end result is a tangible and emotional journey through the four stages of adaptation: home, anxiety, adjustment, and acceptance.

The 8-minute long game is designed to be used in museums and seminars for people of all ages to experience adaptation, focusing on ages 18-30.

Gyroscope hand remote controls the motions of the car and navigates it around the track.

The car gets easier or more difficult to control depending on the player’s adaptation phase.

In more difficult emotional phases, the controls are randomised and nonintuitive.

The progress tracker on the car is similar to an anxiety-inducing symbol - the dropping battery level.

Journey Through Stages of Culture Shock and Adaptation

Behind the Scenes - Building and Testing

Time in the 4th Dimension

An interactive AI-powered installation exploring the psychological ability to relive and forget moments in time.

Inspired by the concept of Four-Dimensional time and Kurt Vonnegut’s SlaughterHouse Five, this project explores what it means to be able to control how you experience memory and time.

This is applicable to areas like trauma recovery and therapy.

Viewers who walk through the space can swipe their hands in either direction to move backwards and forwards through time, reflecting on how they have the power to choose which moments in their lives to focus on.

Computer vision algorithm reads the position of the body and wrists and either stops or scrolls the video forwards or backwards accordingly.

Visual Inspirations and Order of Footage

visuals based on this looping gif of time in the 4th dimension

Cyclical animation representing the flow of time in a person’s life. Participants choose how they travel through this time, which moments they stop to look at, which they move past, and which they replay and hold onto - whether positive or negative.

Promotional video, animated component, interactive web version and future expansions.

Future large-scale expansions in installation format.