Exhibitions of design work, particularly unbuilt work, tend to focus on and idolize the output of design production: models, drawings, images. Rarely do the potential experience of these spatial proposals or the experience of the gallery space figure largely in rooms full of intricate models under dramatic lighting.

Live Feed amplified a collection of student work from the Graduate School of Design with real-time overlays, building on the spatial proposals embedded in the models to create new images and a changeable experience for visitors. Relying on a network of 50+ single-board computers, the exhibition distributed 24 live camera views to 11 large-scale projections, capturing views from inside models and projecting them across the gallery space. Visitors found their spectation represented to them, and new views of the models and images emerged. Monitors displaying scrolling collections of imagery and mirrored podiums created further layers of real-time content, also captured and replicated in the live feed projections. Feedback loops swelled and dissipated as the cameras periodically captured their own images and visitors still present in the space appeared in multiple projections simultaneously.

So-called “real-time” representation collapses the moment of production with the moment of that production’s experience such that their temporal displacement becomes imperceptible. In real-time, mediating interfaces become the site of design work and issues of lag, resolution, and throughput become constraints that shape spatial experience. This collapse creates the opportunity for designers to close the gap between design and experience. Rather than mediating their work through scale models and imagery and enacting it through contracts, permits, and construction, designers may choose to focus on developing and implementing methods to conceive and deliver novel, beautiful experiences in real-time.

Exhibited at the Druker Design Gallery, Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

designed, prototyped, and implemented technical system for live feeds, collaborated on spatial design and installation.

technical diagrams

Exhibition Curators
Jon Lott, Assistant Professor of Architecture, PARA-Project
John May, Assistant Professor of Architecture, MILLIØNS

Harvard Graduate School of Design Exhibitions Department
Dan Borelli, Director of Exhibitions
David Zimmerman-Stuart, Exhibitions Coordinator

Design Team
Justin Gallagher
Hyojin Kwon
Grace McEniry
Scott March Smith
Emerald Hanguang Wu

Installation Team
Christine April
Elizabeth Asch
Ray Coffey
Jef Czekaj
Anita Kan
Sarah Lubin
Jesus Matheus
Joanna Vouriotis