The Room In Our Head

Visual Installation

The Jazz Gallery, 1158 Broadway 5th floor, New York, NY 10001
May 1 - Sep 15, 2024

Art and Animation Direction: Suphitcha Donsrichan (Jan)
2D & 3D Animation: Suphitcha Donsrichan (Jan), Na Chan
Installation: Suphitcha Donsrichan (Jan), Kengchakaj Kengkankla, Nerissa Campbell
Special Thanks: Rio Sakairi and The Jazz Gallery

The Rooms in Our Heads is a site-specific interactive installation commission for The Jazz Gallery based on the conversations with musicians, artists, and patrons at The Jazz Gallery on the topic of “What is Jazz?”. The visual is triggered by a certain number of visitors in the room reflecting individual and different experiences that each of us feels while hearing the music. The animation runs in small loops for various points of view from musicians and patrons using the chairs in the gallery as a representation.

IN VISIBLE CITIES

In Visible Cities is an interactive storytelling installation about individual and collective memories of life during 1950-1970s in rural cities in Thailand over a dinner conversation. The visitors are invited to explore the space inhabited by the invisible people who experienced social invisibility and social inequality and listen to their stories.

video presentation and demo of project installation

Concept and Development: The shadow was created in Unity3D and projected from the projector underneath the pedestal. All visuals and sounds are controlled by Isadora using the user's position tracked by Kinect which the user can maintain in their post to listen to the story in the different positions of the table and play with the shadow from their positions around the table.

The shadow is also used as a timer to give a hint of the length of each story.

User walks around the table set following the sounds

User positions were tracked by Kinect that was connected to Isadora

The shadow was projected from the projector under the pedestal

createPattern( );

createPattern( ); is a project explore the effects of light and shadow and how to use body to control our surroundings. The project was inspired by Komorebi, which is the Japanese word for sunlight that filtered through the leaves of the trees, and other random patterns created by natural light and shadow.

some earlier projects related to shadows

Exploring Phase 1 : Mimicking Komorebi by using 2 mirrors to create a basic kaleidoscope, then attached a piece of paper onto each hand of the servos that sit on top of the mirror to mimic the leaves. The servos are control by Arduino using distance data from proximity sensors as an input - which you can see the hand on the left side of the screen in the demo video move-in and out.

Exploring Phase 2 : Applying colors into the project by creating colored shadow patterns and assigned some patterns/colors into the specific distance.

To make a color shadows from LEDs light, I need to follow CMYK colors system by mixing the intensity/brightness of each red, green and blue LEDs. And I also needed to add bright white LEDs to get rid of the common black shadows that might happen from the overlaps.

Colored CMYK shadows created by using RBGW LEDs

Rough diagram of the installation on phase 2

Visual Projection

Interactive and Live Visual for The Jazz Gallery

The Jazz Gallery
1158 Broadway, 5th floor, New York, NY 10001

Declan Sheehy-Moss “BOUNCE”

Melissa Almaguer “Mujer Agua” Interactive Live Sample

TJG BG Live

Sirintip - Plastic Bird feat. Alex Hahn

Music by Sirintip and Nolan Byrd
Lyrics by Sirintip and Katya Diaz
Produced by Sirintip & Nic Hard
Engineered and mixed by Nic Hard, Sirintip, Alex Hahn & Michael League
Mastered by G & J Audio

Vocals, Vocal effects, Vocoder, Plastic Trash Percussion Programming - Sirintip
Flute - Alex Hahn Moog One,
Piano - Kengchakaj Kengkarnka
Electric Bass - Michael League
Drums, Plastic Water Jugs - Nolan Byrd

Plastic Bird is based on the consequences of plastic pollution and the importance of biodiversity. The drums on the recording are a blend of sampled plastic trash from Sirintip's kitchen, plastic water jugs as a part of the drum kit, and a grand piano recorded through a plastic container. The biodiversity part is emphasized during the intro, where the rhythms of the vocal loops are transcribed from the Black Sickelbill’s mating dance. While writing the lyrics to Plastic Bird, Sirintip drew parallels to imposter syndrome: a plastic toy bird who wants to fly like the real birds, but its fear of being discovered prevents it from even trying.

Director - Nitcha Tothong
Screenwriters - Sirintip Phasuk, Nitcha Tothong
Executive Producers - New York Foundation of the Arts, Sirintip Phasuk
Producer - Phapfun Watcharasombat
Director of Photography - Derek Siyarngnork
First Assistant Camera - Ackrawin Rungruangviechakul
Set Director - Jan Suphitcha
Talent - Sirintip, Maia Schechter
Choreographer - Winnie Asawakanjanakit
Gaffer - Natt Siritanapivat, Thitipol Samuttha
Costume Designer - Darunee Jaroonrueng
Hair and Makeup - Wutthipong Khrueawan
Hair and Makeup Assistant - Kritwamornpan Nairong
Editor - Krint Thitawattanakul
Colorist - Tuchtram Thientawach
Art Director - Nitcha Tothong, Jan Suphitcha
Special Effects and Animation - Nitcha Tothong, Jan Suphitcha
Runner - Brick Thana, Chutima Kaolerk
Production Assistant - Kengchakaj Kengkarnka, Nolan Byrd
Acting Consultant - Casey Hartnett

Classzoom

Classzoom is an interactive installation inspired by the idea of school and student life during the pandemic. Augmented shadow of an empty chair - as a symbol for each student, were created in Unity3D and controlled by the position of the user.

Abstract : During the Covid-19 pandemic, many international students have to push themselves to get up at 5am or stay up late until 2-3 am to join the virtual class via zoom from many different timezone. To convey different timezone and sunrise/sunset time of each student, the shadow in this project is used with ticking clock sound to mimic the eerie and exhausted mood of the virtual classroom.

When user get closer to the curtain position, the shadow will start to follow the user

Augmented shadow was projected from the projector under the pedestal

Hina Oikawa: Short Songs

Hina Oikawa Short Songs
February 28, 2025,
Culture Lab LIC

Alto Sax, Others: Hina Oikawa
Tenor Sax, Flute: Sean Hong Wei
Baritone Sax, Clarinet: Skyler Hagner
Trumpet: Summer Camargo, Naoya Ogura
Trombone: Altin Sencalar
Piano: Ben Rosenblum
Bass: Marty Kenney
Drums: Alon Benjamini
Vocal: Mỹ Tâm
Art Direction, Live Visual: Jan Suphitcha

Shannon Yu : “…all knowing 瞭然”

Evening solo choreographed and performed by Shannon Yu
Shannon is Aaartsalliance ‘s 2023 Jadin Wong Fellow for Dance & choreography

past…present…future
…all knowing in the power of change that connects us all.
I hold a magnifying glass up to myself, inviting you to witness the intricacies of my being — the flaws, the brilliance, the humanity.
In turn, I extend this lens outward, reflecting on New York, Taiwan, queerness, displacement, and, ultimately, you.

Collaborating with musician: Levi Lu
Interactive Video Animation: Jan-Suphitcha Donsrichan
Rehearsal assistant: Maddie Hopfield
Lighting designer: Matthew 'Mateo' Morris
Project manager: Mattie McGarey

Triskelion team:
Executive director: Rachel Mckinstry
Director of Productions: Anna E Wotring
Director of operations & marketing: Miriam Rose

“…all knowing 瞭然” is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council. With process supported by @topazartsinc Artist in residency, @newdancealliance Satellite program, and LEIMAY subsidized rehearsal space program.

Video &photo credits: @triskelionarts @allyvisuals @intergrantfestival @milana_aernova