Sephora - Illumination
Four screens, thousands of skin tones scanned in store: a data art piece on diversity, where the public plays with real skin data.
Illumination is the interactive data art installation created for Sephora Canada in Toronto in 2023, launched for Indigenous Peoples' Month. Before four large double-sided immersive projection screens, each visitor is first scanned to bring their skin tone into the work, then plays with the data: every point is a skin tone captured by Sephora across its Canadian stores, revealing the full diversity of the country's complexions in a single glance. As creative tech producer, I orchestrated the real-time chain (SICK LIDAR, TouchDesigner, Notch engine, ETC OnlyView output) and the spatialized sound by Start-Rec. A work with a powerful message on diversity and inclusion.
Four large double-sided immersive projection screens. Skin-tone data captured across stores in Canada.
Technical details
For interactivity, SICK LIDAR sensors track the audience's movement in front of the screens and let visitors play with the data in real time. These streams are processed in TouchDesigner, which hosts a Notch engine for particle management, with output delivered through an ETC OnlyView system. The spatialized audio, by Start-Rec, runs on Ableton and Max MSP in real time. Upstream, a station scans each visitor's skin tone to bring them into the work.