International award for Waikato University computer graphic design lecturer

A University of Waikato lecturer in computer graphic design has walked away with an award for excellent artwork at the recent Shanghai Science and Art Exhibition, beating designers from a dozen other countries with his 3D colour, sound and movement installation.

Singapore-born Keith Soo has worked as a multi-­media designer and lecturer in NZ for the past six years, and found himself representing NZ at a recent exhibition, which showcased some of the new technologies that will be exhibited at next year’s World Expo, also to be held in Shanghai.

He says he came as a bit of a shock to the translator assigned to the NZ exhibitor.

“My helper was a little disappointed when she saw me because as a Singaporean I can also speak Mandarin, so she didn’t get much of a chance to use her English.”

Mr Soo’s winning installation, a collaboration with three former colleagues at the Wanganui School of Design, used software to project graphics through the medium of water.

“If the conditions are right, you can project a two-dimensional image through water and it looks 3D,” he says.

“In the piece, hand gestures control the movement of lights in the water, and we also programmed a sound track to mirror the movement. If you move your hand faster, it creates a happy sound; if you move it more gracefully, the music is more gentle.”

Mr Soo says the concept potentially has commercial applications.

“It works something like a hologram,” he says.

“Imagine a giant tank, perhaps even containing fish and water plants, which allows people to interact with the 3D image projected into the tank.”

The next step is to experiment with more than one light source – multiple light sources, he says, could project a true 3D image.

Mr Soo says as a prize-winner he’s been invited back next year to the annual design and technology show, which will run in conjunction with the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, expected to be the largest-ever world exhibition.