An interactive installation that explores how technological systems classify people, construct narratives, and shape human behavior.
The Spectrum of Reality is an interactive installation about algorithmic classification, mediated perception, and the narratives that systems impose on people. Rather than simply observing participants, the installation frames them through projected identities and responsive media, turning classification into a spatial and social encounter.
Role
Conceptor and Technical Lead
Team
Solo project
Institution / Year
Harvard University - Graduate School of Design 2026
Tools
Mixed media system
The project draws from questions of surveillance, control, and social conditioning. In a world shaped by recommendation engines, automated judgments, and invisible digital infrastructures, identity is increasingly assigned, monitored, and reinforced by machine systems. The Spectrum of Reality brings that condition into physical space, where participants can feel the pressure of being interpreted by an external logic.
The core idea is to stage a space where algorithmic labeling becomes visible and embodied. Participants encounter layered projections, portraits, and environmental cues that suggest how systems flatten complex people into roles, traits, and categories. The installation exposes how quickly behavior can be redirected when machine-generated classifications are treated as truth.
The installation is organized as a spatial sequence of screens, projections, and responsive media. Faces and identities appear across layered surfaces, creating a spectrum between self-image, system image, and social interpretation. Moving through the work becomes an act of negotiating how technology sees, distorts, and narrates the body.
The process combined physical prototyping, projection tests, screen studies, and live media experiments. Iterations focused on the relationship between circular frames, projected portraits, participant movement, and the visual language of system judgment. Documentation captures both early fabrication tests and later installation rehearsals.
The Spectrum of Reality reframes algorithmic bias and automated classification as conditions that can be felt spatially. By making invisible systems tangible, the work invites viewers to question how much of identity is self-authored and how much is continuously produced by external infrastructures.
Role: Conceptor and Technical Lead.
