On December 12, 2014, NYU Shanghai faculty, students, and staff congregated on the eighth floor of the Academic Building for the Interactive Media Arts (IMA) End-of-Semester show and English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Shanghai Stories exhibition.
The largest crowd of supporters belonged to the IMA group, who showcased a multitude of projects such as intricate paper art, animated short films, movement-sensing phone apps, and a heat-sensitive penguin-shaped fan. The evening featured a total of 156 original student projects, 104 of them from IMA courses alone.
From the Interaction Lab course, Yi Zhao, Zhener Ma, and Haoyu Wu presented “Interstellar,” a space-themed, interactive game that involves throwing play balls at a display of circular light-up targets.
From the Sound & Vision course, sophomore Kevin Pham encouraged passersby to try “The Syzygy of Dance,” an interactive project that teaches rhythm and dance using Kinect to capture motion and trigger music samples.
Also from Sound & Vision, Zhang Zhan and Ferwa Razzaq’s “Laser Harp,” described as “an electronic musical instrument and laser lighting display,” allowed participants to play melodies across a series of red laser beams shining through an eerie fog.
Other projects included Saphya Council and Marjorie Wang’s KTV-based “The Chain Music Box,” Nicole Chan’s Harry Potter-themed “The Sorting Hat,” Baaria Chaudhary’s satirical “Elevator Pitch” game, and Nicholas Sanchez’s “RFID/NFC Education” project presenting wearable technology as an identification card.
Shanghai Stories students also presented numerous projects, including interpretive contrast photography between Ding Ling’s Shanghai, Spring 1930 and Mian Mian’s novel Candy, a gripping visual arts performance from Chloe Haddaway and José Cabrera titled Candy: An Abstract Illusion, and six short student films about Sherlock Holmes in Shanghai.
EAP students were encouraged to “see reality through multiple perspectives” and filled a room with video projects on Cities and Urban Consciousness: Storying Science, through which they explored “examinations of otherness in science and technology” and the “paradoxes of individual Shanghai streets.” Freshman student Zihou Zhao’s short film "Century Avenue Park" gave detailed landscaping plans in hopes of transforming Shanghai’s Century Avenue into a greener place.
While impossible to capture every student's project, what was captured between the booths, laptops, and excited flurry of conversations was the strong student dedication. Creativity, critical thinking, and inner resourcefulness nurtured by a supportive education are key ingredients for more innovative creations in the future.
View the Gallery
Written by Charlotte San Juan