“Just a Little Peek” invites visitors to step into a magical world of miniature dioramas and experience the beauty of everyday life on a small scale. Through local artist Cheryl Teo’s captivating artwork, the exhibit offers a unique, interactive way to explore the intricate details of the built environment. As visitors become the miniature inhabitants of these dioramas, they are given a new perspective on the world around them and an opportunity to appreciate the importance of design in our daily lives.
Technical Implementation
Fabrication of Cardboard Furniture
The design specification of our fabricated cardboard chair was to support an adult's weight for our museum visitors' safety. Hence, we employed a cross-brace structure design that involves weaving intersecting cardboard strips to create a lattice-like structure. The cross-brace form helped with even weight distribution and stability, thus preventing the chair from collapsing.
The chair was first modelled in 3D using Fusion360 to obtain the exact managements and the individual cardboard pieces were extracted for laser cutting. The laser cut pieces were then hand assembled and covered with yellow coloured paper.
Cardboard Chair Electronics and Sensors
Underneath the chair, a custom-made force sensor activates when seated, turning on the diorama. The interaction is programmed with a Microbit controller and is connected via bluetooth to the diorama. The electrical circuit is connected via copper tape and aluminium foil padded with a foam layer. When seated, the foam compresses, connecting the circuit and sending a Bluetooth signal to turn on the diorama. When users stand, the foam decompresses, opening the circuit and sending another signal to turn off the diorama. The pictures below show the circuit diagram of the electronics of the chair
Pepper's Ghost Effect
The effect involves having a clear panel be placed in the miniature at 45°. A video is then played from an iPad directly above the diorama. The screen then reflects the video, creating a hologram-like illusion with depth. Our diorama was built with laser-cut white acrylic along with a clear PVC sheet to achieve this holographic illusion
