This augmented dinner table reveals the dark truth behind the shark finning industry, which is a brutal but popular trading activity in East Asia that has often been ignored. Focusing on the topic of trauma, this installation not only aims to eliminate the distance between the common public and the sharks, but also tries to ignite a mindful meditation for empathy.
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Behind the Shark Fin Soup is an augmented projection based installation. This whole installation together with the environmental setting designed to be an augmented dinner experience where people can sit, learn and feel the dark truth behind the shark finning industry.The main purpose for this project is to raise people’s awareness of the shark finning industry. Its initial inspiration was driven by my previous volunteer experience in Sri Lanka. This project is aiming to bring a straightforward view of this serious matter to the public.
The project is developed based on the idea of empathy, in order to ignite the public actions towards such a social issue. As for the visual content, the projection tells a story generally in flashback. Starting with a bowl of shark fin soup, it traces back to the cooking and fishing process. Afterwards, the vision would expand to the general ocean environment and suddenly draw the attention back to the bowl right in front of the audience. With all these contrasts, it indicates what great effect that an individual could have on such a serious matter: exactly as the title goes, what is behind your bowl of soup? In terms of the visual expressions, the language of trauma has been used to make the experience intensive and memorable. After the hectic input, the audience are expected to get a meditative thought to grow their empathy.
As for the sound design, it could be divided into two parts. One is the representation for the shark finning process, which is made up of human voices and the machine-like, repetitive noises. These sounds have been extracted from shark finning documentaries. The other one is voices from marine animals, such as the whales’ voice, which represents the natural environment and marine lives. All sounds are intentionally designed to be sound like under the sea, in this way, to make the environment more immersive.
The objects displayed beside the projection are models of product related to shark fins. This corner imitates the real Chinese restaurant setting.
Tags:#AugmentedExperience#ProjectionMapping#EmpatheticDesign