We consider a machine as a sentient being. The machines processing big data can be seen as an all-seeing eye. Its sense based on an evergrowing dataset that contains collective experiences. When big data provides nearly an omniscient narration and prediction of our daily life in the future, it is as if there is continuously a digital duplication of ourselves in the parallel digital universe. Doppelganger depicts such a situation with carious digital humanoid representations living behind a screen who imitates the participant's behavior in real-time. 

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Doppelgänger is an interactive audiovisual installation that explores the idea of surveillance capitalism. It creates an immersive experience that bridges between the physical body and virtual personas. The audience is invited to interact with multimedia elements and characters in a fictional environment while their behavior data being constantly tracked, which reflects the digital dystopia where people’s lives are recorded and analyzed by the ubiquitous tracking devices and hidden powers. The piece has been divided into three main scenes as following: 

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S1: data capture 

when viewers step inside the space, their position data is captured in real-time, and they will find a red target square constantly following their path on the floor. In front of them are vast lines scanning the whole space representing the first stage of data scraping. 

S2: smart city 

Participants immersed themselves in an imaginary view of a dark smart city scene full of tracking sensors. The city flooded with displays of advertisements that benefit from the data monetization system. 

S3: the omniscient eye 

Finally, we move up into"the Clouds", where we discover a huge central hub that gathers the data from all the places in the cities. People's social network posts, photos, texts, and shared links are all analyzed by this powerful machine, which we imagine as an all-seeing eye. 

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Media: 4 channel speakers, 3 projectors and 1 TV screen. 3 Kinect cameras, webcam

software: TouchDesigner, Unity3d, and Autodesk Maya 

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Sound/generative visuals/programming: Weilu Ge

Animation: Kelon Cen

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