The Cloud Room
The Cloud Room is a large-scale, bouncy-castle–based immersive installation selected and sponsored by Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, Epic Games, and the USC Entertainment Technology Center. The inflatable environment integrates motion capture, IMU sensors, Arduino hardware, and TouchDesigner to power real-time projection-mapped light and sound, creating an emotionally calming, anxiety relieving, responsive world for visitors to explore. Showcased at SXSW 2026.
Role: Creative Director
Genre: Immersive Experience & Installation
Team: 3 Students
Length: 5-10 mins
Work In Progress!
Development Process
designing a space that genuinely felt calming and safe — not stimulating, not performative.
Design Strategy
1. Physical Safety & Comfort: The inflatable structure creates a soft, enclosing environment that supports the body and encourages people to lie down, relax their posture, and let go of control.
2. Slow, Readable Interaction: Interaction is driven by subtle body movement captured through sensors. Instead of buttons or explicit tasks, small motions gently influence the audiovisual environment.
3. Sensory Reduction, Not Overload: We reduced complexity. Soft lighting, gradual transitions, and ambient sound were designed to avoid spikes in attention. The goal was to create a space where nothing demanded action.
Contribution
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Led the overall creative and technical direction of the installation.
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Designed a series of interactable “planets” suspended from the ceiling, each with custom fabric textures and unique audiovisual behaviors triggered when touched or moved.
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Developed the full interactive pipeline, mapping motion data and planet interactions to dynamic projection and sound responses.
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Coordinated venue logistics, equipment rentals, and production timelines with Sony ensuring on‐site execution.
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Oversaw hardware integration, sensor calibration, and real-time projection workflows.
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Directed the spatial layout, inflatable structure design, and audience flow.
Visual & Texture Research
One challenge in The Cloud Room was designing textures and visuals that felt calming without relying too much on personal taste. We wanted the final materials to feel soothing to a wide range of people, and we wanted the projected visuals to grow naturally from the textures instead of feeling random or unrelated.
To explore this, we ran a small textile study using eight very different fabric samples from a fabric store. Participants touched each fabric while blindfolded, then described what it felt like, what imagery it brought to mind, and ranked how calming and comfortable it was.
This helped us choose three textures that felt consistently soothing across participants, while also giving us a clearer visual direction rooted in touch and association.
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Visual Development
First Prototype in UE5
Experimenting with creating customized Niagara System in Unreal, but it doesn't feel quite right.
Second Prototype in Touch Designer
We connected cameras, IMU sensors and projections to test out visuals with touch designer, it feels much better, but we wanted to fine tune our visuals further in respond to user feedback from our survey data
Third Prototype in Touch Designer
Based on user feedback of the silk texture, we tuned parameters to reflect a smooth, flowy, green, aurora-like visual.