Together with four other students, I developed the "Bionische Boom" for artist Vincent Braeckman as part of The ConneXion at Floraliën 2026 in Ghent. The installation was designed as a hybrid between nature and technology, creating the feeling of interacting with a living organism rather than a traditional technological installation.
The tree reacts to visitors through a camera connected to TouchDesigner, where we used blob tracking to detect people moving around the installation. Projection mapping was then used to project animated roots onto the floor in front of the tree. When visitors stepped onto the projected roots, a pulse travelled through the tree, creating a visual and physical reaction using LEDs connected to an Arduino.
Inside the tree, an LED matrix connected to a Raspberry Pi visualizes the energy that is being built up through the interactions. Every interaction adds another pulse, and after 10 pulses the tree reaches its climax. The leaves start moving, the tree trunk opens and closes as if the tree is coming alive, and additional sound effects and a smoke machine controlled through TouchDesigner and DMX complete the experience.
WebSockets were used to communicate with the different components of the installation. We also developed a simple controller that allowed Vincent to manage the entire installation from a control desk. This gave him direct control over the different components without needing to interact with the underlying technical setup, making it possible for him to operate the installation independently during the event.
This project was a major learning experience because it was developed for a real public event with a fixed deadline. After completing the installation, it had to run continuously for the 10 days of Floraliën 2026. During the event, I gained hands-on experience monitoring a live installation, fixing unexpected bugs, making follow-up changes and keeping the entire system running reliably for visitors.
Working on Bionische Boom taught me a lot about developing interactive installations for real world environments, where the experience, hardware, software, reliability and usability for the operator all have to work together. It was a great opportunity to take the knowledge I had gained from previous educational projects and apply it to a large scale public installation.
The tree reacts to visitors through a camera connected to TouchDesigner, where we used blob tracking to detect people moving around the installation. Projection mapping was then used to project animated roots onto the floor in front of the tree. When visitors stepped onto the projected roots, a pulse travelled through the tree, creating a visual and physical reaction using LEDs connected to an Arduino.
Inside the tree, an LED matrix connected to a Raspberry Pi visualizes the energy that is being built up through the interactions. Every interaction adds another pulse, and after 10 pulses the tree reaches its climax. The leaves start moving, the tree trunk opens and closes as if the tree is coming alive, and additional sound effects and a smoke machine controlled through TouchDesigner and DMX complete the experience.
WebSockets were used to communicate with the different components of the installation. We also developed a simple controller that allowed Vincent to manage the entire installation from a control desk. This gave him direct control over the different components without needing to interact with the underlying technical setup, making it possible for him to operate the installation independently during the event.
This project was a major learning experience because it was developed for a real public event with a fixed deadline. After completing the installation, it had to run continuously for the 10 days of Floraliën 2026. During the event, I gained hands-on experience monitoring a live installation, fixing unexpected bugs, making follow-up changes and keeping the entire system running reliably for visitors.
Working on Bionische Boom taught me a lot about developing interactive installations for real world environments, where the experience, hardware, software, reliability and usability for the operator all have to work together. It was a great opportunity to take the knowledge I had gained from previous educational projects and apply it to a large scale public installation.