Sleep Ecology: A Realtime Journey Through the Collective Dream
Sleep Ecology is an immersive data visualization piece that transforms eight hours of REM-sleep data from 100+ participants into an immersive, virtual forest. Four plant species—Wild Columbine (positivity), American Beech (serenity), Stinging Nettle (negativity), and Ghost Pipe (introspective sorrow)—emerge, grow and vanish in sync with dreamers’ awakenings. Anchored by a real-time timestamp, the piece invites you to witness the night’s emotional currents as they shape a living ecosystem from midnight to dawn.
You can find the original dataset used here.
My role - designer and developer
Time frame - feb to may 2025
Skills - Unreal Engine 5, Blueprints, TouchDesigner, Python, OSC Protocols, L-Systems, Data Handling & Visualization, 3D Asset Pipeline (materials, texturing, optimization), Lighting & Environment Design, Post- Processing
Final details are being added to this page.
Please check back soon for the full write-up.
Concept
This piece explores the collective subconscious as a living ecosystem. Based on a longitudinal REM-sleep study, it translates time-stamped dream reports and emotional valences into a dynamic visual environment. Each of the four plant species represents a specific emotional state:
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Wild Columbine – energizing positivity
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American Beech – calming serenity
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Stinging Nettle – reactive negativity
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Ghost Pipe – introspective sorrow
As participants awaken during the study, their associated emotions exit the scene, and the corresponding flora fades. Over time, lingering emotions grow dominant, gradually reshaping the forest by dawn. A real-time clock anchors the piece, allowing viewers to revisit and observe the evolving emotional tides throughout the night.
Sleep Ecology reflects on how individual dreams contribute to a shared emotional landscape. By visualizing fleeting feelings as living elements within an ecosystem, it prompts reflection on which emotions persist beyond sleep—and how they influence our waking lives.
handling sensor data
modeling of planets
text data
camera, light, rendering
post processing effects
output
Project file on Touchdesigner --- Hover for annotations.
Process
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Each flower that appears is born from a participant's emotional state during REM sleep. When someone wakes, the plant representing their emotion fades. To simulate the slow emergence of dreams, plants grow steadily every half-minute, creating an organic rhythm of appearance and disappearance.
I used TouchDesigner to process and refine the time-stamped data in real time, feeding it into an internal clock that drives the forest’s evolution. This data is then sent to Unreal Engine 5 via an OSC server, where it controls plant spawning, growth, and removal, as well as the UI.
To enhance the dreamlike quality of the environment, I created a soft, glowing firefly system using Niagara.
TRAPPIST1-e
Located in the habitable zone – potential for liquid water. Thin atmosphere likely, rocky surface possible, with sufficient warmth provided by the red dwarf star.
As a result, it is visualized as Earth-like due to data gaps and familiar planetary features.
However...Early Earth microbes used retinal pigments, making them appear purple; life on TRAPPIST-1e might do the same under its red dwarf light. Current data doesn’t confirm or deny this—no conclusive info on surface life or specific pigments.
As a result, a purple visualization is just as plausible.
motion sensor triggers the geometry of the exoplanet to switch between these two materials
material using generative planet texture map resembling Earth
procedurally animated shader
3D Asset Creation
Most plant species were modeled using L-systems, a mathematical rewriting system that allowed precise control over their form and growth behavior over time.
Importing raw texture maps from Quixel Megascans, I then built each material graph from scratch in Unreal Engine 5—layering custom translucency, wind-driven vertex animations, and procedural shaders to achieve a surreal, living quality. Additional foliage and environmental elements were brought in via Quixel assets to complete the immersive forest.
