Fridge, toy tank.
In the freezer, footage of humans, polar bears, and arctic landscapes.

Pot, earth, worms, and video of a woman on a gurney.
You can see her breathe if you peer into her little coffin.

You see your face projected onto David’s, to the tune of 18 pop songs telling you you are beautiful.

Dishwasher, books, circuit boards, laptop, and Google.
Filtered knowledge.

REVIEW

Walking into Francesca Talenti’s Genesis: Mishaps in the Kitchen is like walking into a warped fusion of science and technology with your average kitchen… Using actual-sized appliances, small-scale sculpture elements and video and audio presentation, Talenti’s alternative kitchen asks big questions… Each installation intersects life with machine. Talenti points to the idea of how scientific development has led us to create technology, which, in turn, is now having a hand in our own creation.

-Sarah Lupton, The Independent Weekly
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/francesca-talenti-re-imagines-lifes-origins/Content?oid=1202989

Principal Investigators:
Francesca Talenti, UNC Communication Studies
Greg Welch, Research Associate Professor, Computer Science, UNC

Audio:
Darryl Dunn, composer
Madison Bullard, UNC undergraduate student


Animation, 3-D:
Marc Russo, principal animator, NC State graduate student
Matt Harris, modeler, UNC undergraduate student
Charlie Hicks, modeler, UNC undergraduate student


Fish simulation:
Chiung-Yi Tseng, UNC Computer Science graduate student

Game Design
Caitlyn Losee UNC Computer Science undergraduate student
Stephen Roller, NC. State University undergraduate student
Zhen Shao, UNC Computer Science graduate student


Motion Capture
Tao Li, UNC Computer Science graduate student


Water Simulation
Mingsong Dou, UNC Computer Science graduate student
Ying Shi, UNC Computer Science graduate student


Logistics and networking
Bil Hays, Infrastructure Manager, department of Computer Science, UNC
John Thomas, Research Associate, department of Computer Science, UNC
Herman Towles, Senior Research Engineer, department of Computer Science, UNC

The work is immersive and quite pleasant as you are surrounded by the soft blue tones of a simulated underwater environment. Therein, sea creatures wander about seemingly at random as a minimalistic soundtrack plays in the background. The projections seem random, that is, until you see your fellow audience members holding and waving about strange objects. The work is interactive: visitors control the digital sea creatures by moving around objects with sensors on them: an umbrella, a fishing pole, a ball. It’s really quite playful and amusing.
– Adam Rogers, Hastac.org
http://www.hastac.org/blogs/adam-rogers/hastacchat-bathysphere-interactive-art-installation

Designed as a virtual underwater opera and interactive game, The Bathysphere features three-dimensional animations and projections on the walls, ceiling and floor of a space, creating under- and above-water worlds.
– The Herald Sun
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/5625691/article-CHAT–The-faculty-projects?

With Greg Welch, Computer Science.

The ball controls the octopus, the umbrella the stingray, and the fishing rod the fish. Each creature has its own musical cue. We used a motion capture system, 4 networked computers plus projectors, and the game engine Unity. We were in a building that was originally built in 1822.

This video is a 2-minute documentation of the experience.

Up during UNC-Chapel Hill’s CHAT festival, 2010.