Save The Future transforms climate action into embodied play.
Visitors step inside a reactive environment where every gesture shapes the world; clearing floods, calming fires, and restoring balance to the Smoky Mountains around them.
Experience
The installation uses a 4-wall projection CAVE powered by ZED depth cameras and Unreal Engine 5.
Participants move freely inside the space, with full-body tracking turning natural gestures into environmental responses. The experience evolves based on group behavior and choices, mirroring the idea that individual action can shift a shared future.
Highlights
- Real-time body tracking via stereo ZED depth sensors
- High-throughput design with automatic resets for public use
- Sub-60ms input latency from motion to projection
- Dynamic particle systems for water, smoke, and vegetation
- Operator dashboard for live performance monitoring
Technical Core
Unreal Engine drives synchronized projection and physics simulation, with a lightweight custom middleware linking ZED depth maps to world actions.
Each gesture triggers deterministic environmental changes, ensuring stability across thousands of daily interactions.
A full-day exhibit version ran at the Emporium Center in Knoxville, Tennessee, built in collaboration with Local Projects and artist Jake Barton, with support from the Arts & Culture Alliance.
