SerenEcho is an interactive installation inspired by the traditional Chinese Guqin, transforming hand motions into meditative soundscapes and moving light. By combining gesture sensing, projection mapping, and spatial audio, the work creates a quiet, contemplative environment where users can “play” the space through subtle finger movements.
The project reinterprets the Guqin’s poetic expressiveness in a contemporary interaction design framework, emphasizing slowness, presence, and embodied resonance.
The Guqin is known for its philosophical qualities—restraint, serenity, and inner reflection.
SerenEcho extends these qualities into an interactive environment where users:
- Move their hands above the sensing surface
- Trigger soft ripples of light
- Generate delicate audio textures
- Explore an atmosphere of stillness and poetic calm
The installation invites participants to slow down, breathe, and engage through minimal, intentional gestures.
SerenEcho uses hand gestures as the primary input. Users do not touch a physical instrument; instead, air gestures are detected and mapped into:
- Fluctuating lines of projected light
- Spatial sound inspired by Guqin timbre
- Smooth transitions resembling brush strokes or ink flows
This gesture-to-expression mapping mirrors the expressive dynamics of Guqin playing—lightness, pressure, distance, and rhythm.
The installation integrates:
- Distance sensors / gesture sensors to track hand motion
- Arduino microcontroller for real-time input processing
- Projection mapping to visualize gesture traces
- Custom sound synthesis for Guqin-like tones
- Physical stand + projection surface inspired by traditional zither tables
The technical structure supports an experience that feels both traditional and contemporary.
Visually, SerenEcho uses:
- Soft lines
- Expanding ripples
- Gentle gradients
- Ink-painting inspired motion
Sound design references the Guqin’s:
- airy harmonics,
- warm plucked textures,
- long decaying tones.
Together they form a serene audiovisual landscape.
How can gesture-based interaction express the poetic calmness of the Guqin in a contemporary immersive environment?
