An interactive Rangoli installation that reimagines an ancient daily ritual as a gesture-driven, sensor-based experience — exhibited at the PULSE Art + Technology Festival, Telfair Museums.
Timeline
2025 – 2026
Role
Interaction Designer
Creative Technologist
Exhibition
PULSE Art + Tech Festival
Telfair Museums, Savannah GA
Built with
Arduino · Processing
RFID · Hall Sensors
Illustrator
About the project
Overview
Art of Adaptation is an interactive installation exploring the role of cultural arts (Rangoli) as a tool for stress relief — using interactive design to replicate physical interactions and make the practice more accessible and engaging to a new user group. It was exhibited as part of the PULSE Art + Technology Festival at the Telfair Children's Art Museum in Savannah, GA.
Background
Rangoli is an ancient Indian art form made outside homes to infuse positive energy into the space and welcome people in. Each morning, women across South Asia create these geometric patterns, which carry deep symbolic meaning — from lotus flowers representing spirituality to peacocks symbolizing grace.
Symbolism — tap a card to flip
The symbols in motion
Rangoli Design & Symbolism
Lotus
/padma/
Rangoli Design & Symbolism
Marigold
/genda/
Rangoli Design & Symbolism
Conch Shell
/shankha/
Process — trials & experiments
Trials with other sensors
Testing out interactions with different inputs before landing on the hall-effect setup.
Color sensor
Mapping detected colours to on-screen Rangoli elements.
CQ Robot gesture sensor
Reading hand gestures to drive the animation.
Other illustration & animation techniques
Exploring different ways to bring the Rangoli motifs to life.
Splits
Building the Rangoli in Illustrator, split into animation frames.
Phenakistoscope
A spinning-disc animation of the Rangoli motifs.
Hall Effect Sensor Mechanism
Exhibition Layout
Behind the scenes — the code
Arduino IDE 2.3.6
✓→↯ Arduino Uno ▾⌁ ◎
newrangolis_copy_20260611140939.ino ▾
🗀⊞📚⃠🔍
Loading newrangolis_copy_20260611140939.ino…
Arduino Uno on /dev/cu.usbmodem1101 [not connected]
