In 2008, Allan Yong felt helpless as a massive earthquake devastated Wenchuan, a city in China near where he grew up.
At that time, Yong was doing a co-op placement at Adobe in Ottawa as part of his Carleton undergraduate degree.
He created a promotional charity video to help the victims of the earthquake. But he wanted to do more.
So he created Remorial, “an interactive view into the past, a universe of names and ages that respond to your every movement.”
Yong, who is now pursuing a Master of Applied Science in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Carleton, says he is passionate about how this art form can tell a story using different media. Says Yong: “The visitors literally become part of the art work as their interactions can affect the installation.”
This summer, Yong took Remorial to Beijing’s Today Art Museum for an international student contest. He was the only Canadian competing and won an honorary mention for his piece.
Back home, he is working on his thesis – a smart environment that helps the elderly to take advantage of modern technologies by enhancing how they interact with digital devices.
Yong says his thesis supervisor, Prof. Ali Arya, has helped him to solve some critical bugs. He also says that the HCI program has allowed him to network with people in the industry, to work with people from different disciplines and research a topic he is truly interested in.
In this spare time, Yong is a photographer. You can see his work here.
Thursday, September 6, 2012 in Grad Student Research, News
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