The quarantine and self-isolation provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic have forced us to move our means of communication through cyberspace. This shift in the means of communication was significant for me to realize the charm and pitfalls of online interactions. As we navigate the web, our cyber presence is intangible. We can browse the web as an anonymous observer, unseen by others browsing the same website. When we decide to take action, raise our voice through our microphone and turn on our camera, our presence in the conversation still feels intangible. This lack of presence makes our only means of communicating unsatisfactory, unfulfilling and even upsetting. The intangibility of the cyber-presence manifests itself as a conspicuous void.
VoidFilling is a generative artwork consisting of a low-poly human head, rendered with lines and sprawling pixels, sitting in a cloud of tweets. Tracking the activity on social media, the particles activate parts of the model's mesh, depicting our human quest to fill the void created by the immaterial attribute of digital communications. This momentary activation of the mesh will slowly go back to its original state, representing that our attempt to fulfill our need for real communication is non-lasting and futile. For this project, we used TouchDesigner to create the generative visuals and Python with Twitter's API for collecting and managing social media data.