Julianna Johnston

Portfolio for Stories Illuminated





Tethered, 2022


Interactive Immersive Media and Sound Installation.Touch Designer, Python, Physical Computing, LED, Arduino, Kinect Azure, Ultra Short Throw Projector, 3 Channel Sound. 

Tethered is an immersive projection and sound installation that is controlled by the gameplay of a tetherball match. 
Visuals and sound are generated live based on the position of the ball and progress of gameplay. 











The Eyes, 2022
Performance and Video Work. Performance runtime 35 minutes.Touch Designer, Abelton, 20 Live Video Streams, 3 Ultra Short Throw Projector. 

The Eyes uses a combination of the body- our original technology– and new media to refract the surveillance 
state through the myth of Io and Argus Panoptes. A giant covered entirely with eyes reimagined as a singular 
being covered with 20 cell phones, Panoptes is the panopticon embodied. The work traces Io's journey to regain 
body sovereignty as they navigate the fervent digital landscape of Argus’ simultaneous visions.





raw footage - no photogrammetry 
 












You Held the Door, a Dodecahedron Formed, 2021
Interactive Media Installation Activated by Movement ArtistsTouch Designer, MAX, Abelton, Kinect Azure, 2 Ultra Short Throw Projector, 2 Channel Sound. 
You Held the Door, a Dodecahedron Formed utilizes body tracking to translate the physical and emotional distance between users into 
infographic representations. The work co-opts the language of the Sociogram, an infographic used to track the evolution of relationships 
within social groups. Red lines delineate the shifting spatial distance between bodies. An abstract soundscape is controlled live by the 
distance between bodies, the number of bodies detected, and their spatial positioning. The work ponders the representation of 
relationships while creating a space for relations to form.

This work was shown at an Interactive Art and Experimental Sound exhibition. Movement artists activated the interactive media installation 
for a 30-minute performance, at all other times the work was open for the public to interact with. 

This project was completed with support from The Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry.














Schematics of Attention, 2023
Immersive Multi-Media Performance and Installation
Custom WebGL and Firebase Web Page, 7 4K TV Monitors, 7 Android Phones, 3 Short Throw Projector, 4 Channel Sound. 

Schematics of Attention is a dance of screens that diagrams the fractured and fervent experience of seeing today. 
In the immersive media performance, dancers rotate and spin monitors to reveal and obstruct video footage of a previous 
performance in the space only accessible by screen. The screens are a window, and when rotated reveal the past seen from 
a multitude of perspectives but never fully within view. After the performance, the installation is open for viewer interaction.













tether to, 2024
Multi-media Performance and Installation.
 Custom WebGL and Firebase Web Page, 4 4K TV Monitors, 4 Android Phones.

tether to is a performance that explores the numerous ways we are tethered to each other, our devices, and the refracted present playing back upon itself. A dance of screens and thumbs.  The screens are a window, and when rotated reveal the past seen from a multitude of perspectives but never fully within view. The performance builds off of the Touch(ing) Screen workshop, which explores the relationship between digital and physical touch. In this performance, performers eventually are transformed into hands, becoming the embodiment of the scroll.











synonym for a circle, 2023
Interactive Kinetic Sculpture and VR Work.Unity, Blender, Mocap, Custom Wiring.  

synonym for a circle is an interactive virtual reality experience that simulates a circle dance through user interaction with a kinetic sculpture. 
Allowing the viewer to engage in a dance of connection and disconenction. Inside the virtual reality, viewers are guided to hold hands with 
digital bodies, in turn, the viewers raise their hands and find two metal handholds. The VR then prompts viewers to move with digital dancers 
spinning in a circle, as the viewer begins to turn the sculpture spins guiding the viewer safely around the circle. Eventually, the digital circle 
dance ascends into the sky leaving the main viewer dislocated on the ground.













 


I Want a Country, 2017
Set Design, Prop Design, Lighting Design
Production of ‘I Want a Country’ at Leeds Theater at Brown University. Written by Andreas Flouraki. Directed by Athena Washburn. 









Community Based Emergent Technologies, 2021
Interactive Video Essay played on 15 Cellphones

An interactive video essay played across 15 cellphones that explores community based emergent technologies through an examination of the concept of emergence, as described in Manuel DeLanda’s ‘Philosophy and Simulation: The Emergence of Synthetic Reason’. Combining theory and praxis the video essay prompts participants to rearrange the phones based on diagrams to reveal images and videos that exemplify forms of emergence and community based emergent technologies.

The video essay concludes with an attempt to create emergence. The phones display wooden sticks that must be arranged into a pile. Viewers are prompted to rub their hands above the sticks to help ignite a fire that emerges between them. 











[ H E R D ], 2019

Multi-media Installation



[ H E R D ]: an educational tool was developed over the course of several trips to the farm of local Swiss sheep farmers, 
Franz and Silvia Rouss. During these visits, I created a speculative facial trakcing system for the sheep herd.