Nuevos Miedos (New Fears)

Technical Rider
Concept and technical development:
Juliana Escobar Cuellar and David Ayala-Alfonso
Year: 2013
Dimensions and Weights: Variable dimensions, depending on the size of the available room and equipment.
Minimum Space Requirements
Area: 5mt (width) x 6mt(depth) x 4,5mt (height)
Space details: No windows or external light sources / or can be blacked out. Roof rail, props or similar
structure that can hold two video projectors.
Electrical Requirements: Two (2) regular outlets that can support voltage regulators.
Setup time: 1-2 days.

Physical Installation
Designed to occupy its own room, the immersive installation is composed by three main parts. The first one is
a false floor made of industrial cardboard tiles that serve as buttons, which the spectators press by standing or
walking around the room. The second one is a group of four or five old TV sets (with RCA video and audio
inputs) connected to an equal number of computers, which control sections of the floor buttons through the
keyboard interface. The third is a world map (white outlines on a black background), which is projected on the
whole floor by video projectors attached to the ceiling. The installation is calibrated by placing the ceiling
projectors, then placing the TV sets in the map and finally, assigning functions to each tile button, according
to the final configuration of the space. Each button (or combinations of buttons) will trigger different video
events in each of the screens.

Fig 1 General Installation View

In the installation process, the placement of each TV set is relative to the size of the map and how the relative
location of geographical coordinates. Therefore, the projectors must be installed first, as they will serve as a
guideline to set up the rest of the components.

Fig 2 Installation diagram

Assembling the tiles: Most of the tiles will conceal a button that will be pressed by the spectators as they walk
through the room. These buttons are built as shown in Fig 3. Each one will be connected to the keyboard
interface, which will trigger actions in a preloaded Adobe Flash movie that will play on the TV sets. The movie
will have the actions programmed in advance, but the key assignment has to be done upon the installation of
the tiles, as each button is related to the location of the tile in relation to the map and the screen. Combinations
of pressed buttons will also result in different outcomes in the screen.
Building the buttons: The buttons consist of two squares of metal mesh, each one welded to a cable. Two foam
rectangles installed on the sides separate the two meshes, and when a spectator steps on a tile, the middle
point of the meshes touch, activating an action (just like a keyboard stroke, or a key pressed down).

Fig 3 Floor Tile/Button assembly diagram

Once the buttons and the floor tiles are installed, they are connected to keyboards and computer to test each
button individually. Each programmed action will be set up in advance, only waiting for a button be assigned a
specific key in the final setup of the installation. After the calibrating the buttons, each Adobe Flash Movie is
loaded in the computers and ran full screen on the TV sets. Finally, audio from each set is tested to find a
suitable volume for the room, so the simultaneous sets create an atmospheric feeling, but some of the sounds
and voices in the sets can still be noticed when the installation is running.

Fig 4 Example of a keyboard chip controller, with USB cable attached (from a dismantled computer keyboard)

Fig 5 Assembly scheme for each set of tiles, computer and TV

Equipment and Materials:

Computer Equipment
4-5 computers with video output (S-Video / HDMI) capable of running Adobe Flash.
Video Projectors
2 Video projectors w/ SD or USB interface and remote control.
Other Equipment
4-5 power cords for desktop computers (if needed.)
3 Common voltage regulators that can hold 4 plugged devices.
4-5 keyboard chip controllers with USB interface (from a dismantled keyboard, leaving only the board
and circuits attached to the USB cable.) [See fig 4]
4-5 S-Video-to-RCA cables / HDMI to RCA cables
4-5 Stereo jack-to-stereo RCA cables.
Electronics welding kit.
Extension cords where needed.
Materials
2mt2 thin high-density foam for insulation purposes (can be in sheets or pieces.) [See Fig 3]
Thin metal mesh that can conduct low voltage electricity (like the one on the keyboard interface). The
amount will be approximately: 2 x 60% of the total area of the room on which the project will be
installed. [See Fig 3]
Thick industrial cardboard. The amount will be at least 80% of the total area of the room on which the
project will be installed. It will be cut into tiles of approximately 30 cms. Not every tile will support a
button. [See Fig 3]
2 Video projector bases that can hold the projectors facing the floor, or 3mt of velcro. [See Fig 2]
Approximately 10mt of Twisted Pair (UTP) cable for disassembling and installing the buttons. [See Fig
3]
8-10mt mounting tape.
3 rolls electrical tape.
Schedule
Day 1: Mounting projectors, setting up tiles, buttons, computers and TVs
Day 2: Pairing buttons with keyboard events in the Flash movie, mounting and testing of the complete
installation.