Bizarre Urban Life: Unclocked. Unblinded. Unwashed.
Interactive audiovisual instruments
Hand-tracking, real-time sound synthesis, and reflection as performance
Bizarre Urban Life is a trilogy of interactive audiovisual instruments examining the fractured rituals of contemporary urban life. Each piece isolates a gesture embedded in the modern body — checking the time, pulling the blinds, taking a shower — and reimagines it as a site of reflection, resistance, and sonic exploration. Through motion tracking, generative sound synthesis, and minimal visual interfaces, everyday actions become performative inquiries into the systems that shape our sense of time, space, and self.
These instruments are intentionally boundaryless — they require no prior skill or expertise. A hand becomes a trigger, a gesture becomes music. By drawing from the familiar movements of daily life, the trilogy invites anyone to step into the role of performer. In doing so, it also offers an invitation to discover the expressive potential of sound synthesis and interactive media. The technology dissolves into the interaction; what remains is instinct, play, and a renewed intimacy with the tools and rituals that quietly define us. In this way, each piece becomes not just an artwork, but a shared space — open, immediate, and universally accessible.
Unclocked
"What if time was never meant to stay in line?"
Unclocked is an interactive audiovisual instrument that invites participants to break from the linear authority of time. A grid of clock-like forms sits in stillness—until touched. Each gesture sends a single clock spinning, its hands following the motion of the finger before gradually winding themselves back to their original time. The sonic response mimics the tactile feel of ticking: soft, elastic, and slightly off-balance, like time bouncing rather than marching forward.
Each clock carries its own tuning and tone, giving the grid a harmonic landscape of potential motion. In Unclocked, time isn't counted or layered—it’s poked, stretched, and gently reset. Not a system to obey, but a structure to briefly disrupt—then let settle again.
Instructions:
Click the image above to interact with this audiovisual instrument.
Use your index finger to play the mini clocks (one finger only).
Press the “F” key to enter fullscreen mode for the best experience.
Adjust your finger-to-camera distance to get the best interaction result.
(Desktop only)
Unblinded
"When I open the blinds, I don’t see the city — I see myself."
Unblinded is an inward-facing audiovisual instrument that invites performers to explore visibility, introspection, and gesture through a mirrored interface. A window blind unfolds not to reveal a cityscape, but a reflection — the camera-facing performer. The act of pulling open the blind becomes an intimate ritual of self-discovery rather than outward observation.
The sound engine is inspired by the Hammond tonewheel organ, synthesized in real time using additive sine wave harmonics, percussive envelopes, key click, and vibrato modulation. The left hand pinch gesture — normally used to physically pull — here becomes a nuanced control for both visual openness and sonic character, tilting the blind while simultaneously shaping the vibrato depth of the organ tone.
What appears simple — a hand, a blind, a note — becomes layered through reflection and synthesis. Unblinded turns the act of looking outward into a moment of listening inward.
Instructions:
Click the image above to interact with this audiovisual instrument.
Use your right-hand index finger to play the window blind.
Control the blind’s opening and sound character by adjusting the distance between your left-hand index finger and thumb.
Press the “F” key to enter fullscreen mode for the best experience.
Adjust your finger-to-camera distance to get the best interaction result.
(Desktop only)
Unwashed
"I reach for the water, but the water reaches back."
Unwashed is an audiovisual instrument of interaction, perception, and purification. A digital shower hovers in place — not to cleanse, but to confront. The viewer’s body becomes performer, their finger a proxy for presence and intention. Each touch against the cascading water lines elicits a plucked response — elastic, tuned, and slippery.
The strings are mapped to an Arabic Hijaz scale, their tones synthesized through plucked string algorithms that evoke tension and ornamentation. Each stream bounces like rubber under digital touch, snapping back into place with spring-loaded memory. As the finger brushes across the screen, it disturbs not just sound, but spatial order — musicality emerges from hesitation and return.
Unwashed does not simulate bathing. It exposes the intimacy of the attempt. It treats cleansing as performance, repetition, even longing. The water is always falling, but never quite touches.
Instructions:
Click the image above to interact with this audiovisual instrument.
Use your index finger to play the water lines (one finger only).
Press the “F” key to enter fullscreen mode for the best experience.
Adjust your finger-to-camera distance to get the best interaction result.
(Desktop only)