Memento Mori

Memento Mori, Ne Oblivisci Vivere was a collaborative installation by me, Anne Goodfriend, Jordan Frand, and Yue Hu, exhibited at the Skirball Center in NYC in October 2016. Designed to evoke the cycles of life and death, the installation featured capacitive touch sensors that triggered both physical and digital responses, inviting viewers to reflect on impermanence and the act of remembering.

Focusing on the group exhibition theme of ‘time’ we decided that we wanted to create a pop-up window display celebrating the cycles of life and death, growth and decay. In the tradition of Día de los Muertos and All Saints Day, we created altars to remember those that have passed on, and to assist them in their journey to the afterlife.

Concept Development

Original brainstorming sketches

Concept exploration in early mock up

SketchUp model of final window design

Physical Computing

We designed two interactive windows, each responding to the presence of a viewer. When someone approached, they could press the glass to have their photo taken. The captured image would then transform—first dissolving into a skull over their face, and then either blooming into flowers in the left window or decaying in the right window.

Each button was powered by a capacitive sensor that sent a signal to an Arduino board. Upon receiving the signal, the Arduino triggered a webcam to capture a selfie of the participant. A custom Processing sketch detected the user’s face, gradually replaced it with a skull image, and animated its transformation. The sketch also activated physical elements—such as LED candles and fans—timed precisely with the animation, creating a layered sensory experience that connected the digital and physical worlds.

We connected and soldered over 40 LED candles and programmed them to flicker.

We built capacitive touch sensors and used them to trigger actions in our Processing sketch.

Fabrication

We planned each component of the installation before beginning to build and then fabricated the entire installation by hand, with the exception of the screens. Working as a team we built, painted, connected and decorated all elements of the design.