Case Study

PIXEL GARDEN AT HOUSE OF HYPE DUBAI

Designer/Director Emmett Feldman used Notch to create a holistic—and highly immersive—vision of the natural world at Dubai Mall.

Emmett Feldman designed and directed Pixel Garden, an immersive installation set in one of the themed rooms at House of Hype Dubai. Experiential company HyperSpace commissioned Feldman to create the titular Garden, described as “a hyperreal journey through luminous ecological dreamscapes, a radiant embrace of surreal life forms tending to floating fields of cybernetic blooms.”

Feldman envisioned the Garden as a place where the digital and the organic meet and mingle. On the journey to achieve this vision, he reimagined the role of the digital artist: rather than rotely adding keyframes, he would assume the role of a digital gardener, cultivating the system rather than controlling it—think permaculture.

With this philosophy, the creative team began by developing a 360-degree camera workflow to map the entire room. This enabled a holistic approach to camera moves and the interconnected nature of the visuals. The team also used Notch to build a real-time previewer, which simplified the workflow and allowed them to be more experimental and fluid in their approach.

Notch let me work in a free state of experimentation. It allowed me to approach world-building as an immersed and active participant rather than an all-knowing keyframe operator.

Emmett Feldman, Designer/Director

From there, Feldman designed a catalogue of flora and fauna using Notch’s Deformers and Material attributes. He recalls, “These simplified, biomorphic life forms were a joy to build in real time, and the playful immediacy of the Notch toolset inspired endless variations.” The result: Insects, flowers, and roots harmonise in a dreamlike landscape surrounding visitors to Dubai Mall, which has exceeded 100 million annual guests in recent years.