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3.3 Experimental prototypes

We understood immediately that it was impossible for us to prototype everything in just two weeks, so we focused on three important elements:
- the detection of people on the alley
- the behaviour of the audio guide
- the apparition of the owner Raul Gardini

But we also tried to represebt what we would have done for two other presences that we liked particularly: Filippo Giordano delle Lanze and Nicoletta Ferrari.

He died in 1970, when his lover hit him on his head with a candelabra.

We saw the possibility to play with invisible ink and a UV lamp to visualize the information, but at the same time we liked the feeling of real flames that suddenly light up in the alley. Since we didn’t want the elements visible when the installation wasn’t active, we decided to use just three small candles instead of a candelabra. The candles are on telescopic metal bars that, moving out or in from the wall thanks to a servo-motor, can make them visible or hide them behind branchs of ivy. At the same time a lighter flamp is lit when the bar is out and turned off when the bar goes back inside.
While the real flame seems to illuminate the writing, this is actually done by a UV lamp, also hidden behind the ivy.

She died in 1987, after a mysterious car accident.

We tried to reproduce the headlamps of her car using just two sets of LEDs that light up slowly to give the impression of the car getting nearer, while two speakers play the sound of a car running fast. When the sound reaches the car crash, the lights turn off suddenly and information appears on the mirror-window, already present in the alley. On the glass of the window is engraved of the text, that lights up only when a white light is turned on at its base.

Memento | Context | Experience | Process | Prototype | Code | Final considerations | Credits | Downloads