UIUX | INTERACTIVE DESIGNER | TECHNOLOGIST
FILMBOX: CAPTIVE
Hypophonic Soundbox; Environmental Storytelling
Filmbox: Captive (2020)
This is a reprise from <Amigara Box>. We had to take our original concept from our analogue project and incorporate digital elements in our interactive space. I struggled a little with this brief with all honesty, as it was not like I could give my friends electric shocks to emulate "pain".
By exploring environmental storytelling elements and thinking hard on my budget, I decided I wasn't going to spend hundreds of dollars on this semester project. I wanted to keep the experience as enclosed as possible so that I didn't have to go full aesthetic on my presentation (and hence save money). Instead... I... well.
I decided locked my professors inside the 1x1x1m box for 9 minutes with earphones at loud volume for a vivid experience! (shameless)
Taking the idea of a box which looks just like any other box from the outside, but contains a pandora box’s worth of experiences inside, <Filmbox: Captive> is an installation piece dedicated to telling a Hypophonic narrative. It absorbs the audience into an environmental storytelling scenario, where the story is told with mainly sounds and touch, and with barely any sight. In this case, the story is about being held captive, and the user will experience the story in first person by means of feeling the story- the ice-cold metal floor and walls, the rust and weight of the cold heavy chains, the lack of sight, the lack of freedom of movement, and the hyperventilation-inducing flashing lights if you try to escape your jail cell.
You should have seen my dad's face when I asked him if he could nick some heavy metal iron sheets, wooden frames, padlocks and chains from his workplace. My mom actually pulled me aside to ask me if I was alright.
Process
First, I spent a few 3D2N stays in my university's studio (Fri-Sun) to scream into the air while torturing my hands as I drilled through the metal iron sheets and the wooden frames to secure them together. I eventually created a 1mx1m cube. I secured a metal door with heavy metal chain as well, and made sure they sounded heavy when slamming against my metal door and were long enough to drag on the ground.
Ultrasonic sensors and LED strips were placed within the metal box, where the lights will be triggered to flash violently in red when the ultrasonic sensors detect movement towards the exit of the box. The coding was done with Arduino and Processing.
With that, I did some research and created a 9-min long horror soundtrack, where it is a mash of all sorts of sounds you typically hear in a horror setting- kids laughing innocently, babies crying, doors slamming, chain being dragged, people groaning in pain from being tortured, creepy russian lullabies being sung... you name it.
Showcase
When the day came, I left my jail cell in the corner of an isolated corridor and used a bluetooth speaker to play sounds of crying, and then left it alone. It actually caused people to panic as they heard crying, and they had to check in the box to make sure it wasn't actually a student breaking down inside the box due to the final semester project stress. When my professors reported this fact to me, I was pretty gleeful- it was an unintended effect.
When it came to grading time, I had 2 of my professors and 1 of my classmates sit through the experience. I blindfolded them with a bag, chained their hands and legs up with padlocks, and threw them into the metal box with the hypophonic environmental sounds blasting through their ears. I made sure to slam the metal door harshly, and dragged the chains as much as possible as I locked them up in the box. I saw the process of getting held captive as part of the storytelling I was trying to exhibit. Then, all of us waited until they started slamming of the door. Only then did I free my captives, and they stumbled out feeling extremely disoriented and disheveled.
The fear and anxiety of the unknown was the kind of storytelling I was trying to get my users to experience with their entire body- this was the kind of pain I was trying to highlight- the pain of fear, the fear of the unknown.
I got an A for the project and was the talk of the town for a while, alongside my other project; Morrie. :)