UNBALANCED
Interactive Design
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Installation
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UX / UI
UNBALANCED is an interactive audiovisual installation and large-scale infographic that visualize the imbalance between human activity and Earth’s ecological systems. Built with TouchDesigner, Ableton Live, and a custom SwiftUI MIDI Ipad app, UNBALANCED invites visitors to play with the planet’s balance — revealing how our actions ripple across the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.
How much can humanity take before the planet tips?
UNBALANCED explores this question by offering a tangible interface between human action and planetary response. The project transforms abstract data about human impact into an emotional, interactive experience that makes systemic damage visible and audible. Visitors engage physically with 8 human activities which have a major impact on the environment, and experience how increasing human influence erodes natural systems. The installation bridges the gap between cognitive awareness and visceral understanding.
Research & Foundation
The research for the project began in the previous semester as part of my seminar paper. I researched how speculative design can better communicate the anthropogenic envirnmental crisis - beyond the scope of climate change.
The project itself is grounded in environmental and ecological research, combining sources such as the IPCC, Our World in Data, and the Planetary Boundaries framework. This data informed both the installation’s visual language and the design of a companion infographic wall, providing context and scale to the interactive experience.
The research phase was very extensive and included textual, data and visual research — references and also early sketches.
Motivation & Core Concept
A reflection on control, awareness and consequence.
We live increasingly disconnected from nature: aware of the crisis, yet continuing habits that quietly erode the systems that sustain us. Because the damage is slow and often invisible, many have grown desensitized or doubtful of their own impact. UNBALANCED transforms this gap between awareness and behavior into a tangible experience. Through a digital interface, visitors manipulate the balance between human activity and Earth’s four spheres — land, water, life and air — while the visual world destabilizes in real time as pressure increases. A companion infographic expands the narrative, mapping eight human impact factors across past, present and possible futures. The installation aims to make the crisis felt, spark reflection, and encourage visitors to ask: What is my role in this imbalance, and can it change?
Design Approach
My goal was to build a dual experience: one part interactive play, one part analytical clarity. The interactive installation invites exploration and makes participants complicit in the system; the infographic anchors that experience in fact-based context. Visually, I merged organic, microscopic textures (evoking natural systems) with sharp, technological elements (evoking human systems) to reflect the tension between nature’s harmony and mechanical humanity.
Interaction & Experience
At the heart of the installation is a custom made iPad-app interface, designed to act as a real-time controller of the system. The app features 8 faders, one for each of the human activities the project focuses on, and 4 "focus" buttons, where a user can zoom-in into each of Earths spheres. The more human interference the user introduces into the system, the more the visuals degrade. The app sends data in real-time to a generative visuals engine and a sound engine, creating feedback loops of control and collapse.
Infographic Design
Process
I translated extensive environmental research into a clear visual structure, mapping eight human impact sectors onto Earth’s four spheres. Early sketches explored how to balance complexity and readability, eventually combining system diagrams, data points and a historical timeline into one cohesive layout.
Concept
The infographic is built on the idea that everything is interconnected. Its structure moves from planetary systems to human activities and finally to personal impact, reflecting how small choices accumulate into global consequences. The visual language blends organic textures with precise grids to echo the tension between nature and human systems.
Execution
Designed at a 2.4×1.9m scale, the final piece combines three storytelling layers:
a systems map showing how human activity affects each sphere, a central circular diagram illustrating interconnectedness, and a “problem–solution” narrative tied to a historical timeline. The result grounds the interactive installation in scientific clarity while remaining visually engaging and easy to navigate.
Technical Setup
The installation connects sound, visuals and interaction through a real-time system built in TouchDesigner and Ableton Live. A custom SwiftUI iPad app sends MIDI and OSC data over Wi-Fi, controlling the generative visuals and sound layers with minimal latency. The setup includes the iPad controller, a projection system for large-scale visuals and a multi-channel audio system.
UNBALANCED was exhibited in the 2025 graduation show of the Holon Institute of Technology (H.I.T.) Visual Communication Department, where it was selected as an Outstanding Graduation Project. In this setting, visitors engaged both intellectually and physically: they manipulated the system, observed the outcome, and read the infographic wall to ground their experience in actual data. The combination of interaction and context invited reflection, dialogue and sometimes discomfort — a deliberate result.
