The movie They Live was always a big inspiration to me; the idea of tech acting as magic glasses to reveal something hidden in plain sight. So, when I was asked to create the technology for a secret bodega hidden in downtown Manhattan, I was soooo there.
Some ideas come to me fully formed and all I need to do is make it happen. A limited number of Adidas Ozweego shoes were being given away to mark their re-introduction. After reserving a pair online, visitors were invited to a special bodega in downtown Manhattan. After showing their reservation pass, the visitor used a fake door in the beverage fridge to enter the space. Inside, projections on all walls showed glimpses of another time. Upon entering a secret code on a keypad, visitors are transported to a future. A newspaper box — an artifact of the past — is unlocked and visitors can grab a voucher for their new artifacts from the past; a free pair of the re-released Adidas Ozweego shoes.
For this installation, I fabricated the hardware and server software to communicate with Resolume. The keypad was connected via an Arduino to a nodejs application; when the keypad was used, a display embedded in the newspaper box would show the input, and upon successful code entry, the box would unlock and trigger animations on all projections. So much fun to build!
