This week I made progress on my midterm project, which is an interactive webcam artwork inspired by Euphoria’s psychedelic aesthetics. The concept is to let users take a live video feed of themselves and transform it into surreal, hallucination-like visuals. By pressing different keys, the user can switch between effects like color-swapping, glowing “UV tears,” and trippy, pulsating backgrounds.
Concept
The idea is to create a personal, immersive experience where the viewer sees themselves transformed under digital hallucinations. The interactivity allows them to “step into” a psychedelic portrait that reacts to their input.
Design & User Interaction
-
The webcam is the canvas: it captures the user in real-time.
-
Pressing different keys (
1–4) switches between effects. -
Each effect is designed to distort colors, overlay glowing shapes, or alter the background to give a hallucinatory vibe.
Sketch
Code Design
I structured the code into separate functions (psychedelicColors(), uvTears(), hallucinationBackground()) so each effect is modular. The keyPressed() function makes it easy to navigate between modes, and the modular design means I can keep adding effects without breaking old ones.
Risk / Challenge
The most intimidating part of this project is achieving truly psychedelic visuals that feel organic rather than random. Messing with pixel arrays and shaders can be complex. To reduce this risk, I started small: I tested pixel manipulation with basic color channel swaps and added some randomized “tear” overlays. Now that the structure works, I can safely experiment with shaders and sound reactivity in later iterations.
Next Steps
-
Experiment with custom GLSL shaders for more advanced visuals.
-
Add sound reactivity so the effects pulse with music.
-
Enhance backgrounds with layered fractals or noise-based distortio