Disequilibrium room is a research-driven, collaborative project that was made possible with the help from Anat Lubetzky, who is an assistant professor of Physical Rehabilitation at NYU. In this project, we targeted on recreating a room that is meant for participants to experience the effect of “vertigo” and “dizziness”, the two physiological conditions commonly associated with vestibular disorders. In this project, we focus our attention on building the multi sensory effect of vestibular disorder, such as vision blurriness, distorted / fracturing sense of hearing, body imbalance, poor light sensitivity threshold and depth perception. The goal is to recreate an environment where participants felt the uneasiness of living in a world of disability.

A set of touch points acted as agents to trigger the visual and auditory effect. Upon landing on the designated touch point, the participant immediately felt imbalance. The disorientating visual and audio hence come in play, further enhancing the compound experience of dizziness and vertigo. The feedback we received from user testing is quite surprising, as some have indicated the favoritism of certain visual/auditory distortion.
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To some extent, it has become a somehow entertaining activity to participate, which is possibly another direction we can explore. Visuals are created in TouchDesigner, Sound by Ableton, physical interaction through Arduino OSC.

Audio and Visual design by Tracey Shi
Collaborated with Esther Zhang on physical installation

Spring 2021