As the worlds of art, design, technology, and architecture continue to overlap, IKEA’s innovation lab SPACE10 and CHART, an ambitious non-profit programme exploring creative alliances between the fields of art, design, architecture, performance, music, and talks, have presented a pavilion that interprets and reacts to visitors’ emotions in real time.
The installation Sum of Us is shaped like a giant cloud suspended in a matrix. Visitors can walk into this emotionally-aware pavilion, where cameras track each facial expression and use machine learning algorithms to analyze them and respond with a personalized audio-visual experience, based on how each visitor feels. All of the read emotions are gathered and stored visually in the infinite cloud, exhibiting the accumulated ‘emotional state’ for guests at all times.
Sum of Us is created by architect Sean Lyon, interaction designer Andreas Refsgaard, lighting engineer Bo Thorning, sound designer Lasse Munk and SPACE10 in collaboration with CHART. The installation artistically and playfully interprets the current state of technology, touching upon everything from open-source design, cloud computing to machine learning, computer vision and affective computing.
“Collaboration has been essential in realizing Sum of Us. Working with both local and international artists, designers, engineers, and technicians opens up novel possibilities and suggestions that would have otherwise gone untested. This richness in knowledge, skills, and experiences means that the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts, and manifests a project true to its central concept,” says Sean Lyon, the architect behind the installation.
The installation has been unveiled during the sixth edition of CHART, which took place in Copenhagen from 31 August – 2 September 2018