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Ruckus in the River

Introduction

Ruckus in the River addresses the disruption local residents and ecosystems are facing dueto their nearby AI (Artificial Intelligence) data centres. Lacking in accountability, largeorganisations are continuing to invest in the expansion of AI, evident by Disney’s one-billiondollar investment in Open AI (Hammond and Nicolaou, 2025). This, combined with a lack ofuser-knowledge on the environmental and societal impact AI has, implies that things areonly set to get worse.

Operating within the CO-LABS theme of society, our storytelling teaches the connection the“big tech” world has with our environment and societies, combining our diverse skills indesign to produce an engaging and meaningful experience. Acting as the sound designer,my role entailed recording and production of the voiceover, and then compiling this voicealongside a variety of sound effects to support the visuals. I also explored the addition of anAR section, creating a prototype of what the experience could look like.

Research and Theme

Research into the water neighbouring data centres revealed a lack of capacity to supportnature and people, with threats of habitat loss and even species decline, directly influencedour decision to include sounds in relation to these, giving the user an even better picture ofthe severity of this issue. (Kenny, Lunj and Kis, 2025)

Delving deeper into our research, we learned that Georgia, United States, is “one of thefastest-growing data centre markets in the US” (Fluery and Jiminez, 2025), making it theperfect the perfect place for focusing our narrative. We decided to hone the narrativespecifically on an under-threat River Flint, Georgia, as it’s diversity combined with highecological value helps to support our theme of society and provides something appealingfor the user to connect with, and thus connect with the information provided.

Our inspiration start point was David Hockneys installation “Bigger & Closer (not smallerand further away)”, in which he presents viewers with the world from his point of view(Lightroom, 2023). Hockney’s vibrant visuals alongside a gripping audio description inspiredand drove the direction of our own installation immensely.

A Right / left project’s “ORIGIN” installation “blends sonic landscapes with visual artistry ina environment designed to soothe and rejuvenate”- Encouraging users to relax and paygood attention to the sounds provided is exactly what we aimed to translate into our sounddesigns, taking the sam level of deliberation and consideration (A Right/Left Project).

Inspired to go to a real-life experience as a team, we visited the nearby ManchesterMuseum’s “Triceratops: Eat, Roam, Repeat” (Manchester Museum, 2025). Alongside furtherdeveloping the teams bond and collaboration, this trip provided a great insight into theoperations of a professional museum and how they opt to display their work. Seeing aprojection, as soon as we walked in, solidified our choice in using projections.

We were compelled to explore the possibilities of using AR, due to its potential to increasethe interactiveness of our project, ultimately increasing the impact our exhibition couldhave. An inspiration that provided a starting direction was a London art project, Art ofLondon, that placed QR codes in the city and when scanned would present a piece of art,making these treasures more accessible to the average person. (Fowler, 2021)

Our target audience is people aged 16 years and older, as the young generations arebecoming increasingly AI-literate but lack the sufficient understanding of said AI. (Taha andOlufemi, 2023). We cannot aim lower age than this as we need our audience to be matureenough to understand and digest the information. As most people are using AI at somecapacity, we are not excluding anyone in our exhibition.

Teamwork & Collaboration

Adopting the Kanban methodology was crucial for this project, segregating the workloadinto manageable chunks that allowed for clear workflows and progress visibility. Trello wasused collectively (Trello, 2025), and I also utilised the kanban boards in my Notion area(Notion, 2022). Figma was ideation and progression hub, with all research and work placedthere for the whole team to see and take inspiration from, ensuring all members were clearlyaligned on one design goal (Figma, 2021)

Our research deeper into the River Georgia revealed that the source of this particular river’senvironmental concerns was actually deforestation, rather than the AI centres as we hadoriginally assumed, this shifted the whole team focus but due to time constraints we agreedas a team to continue using it as reference.

Spacial and financial limitations also hindered our progress; recording quality audio requiresaccess to the expensive technology, both digital and physical. Equipment had to be rentedfor short periods, studios are unavailable to use as we are not music students, so we madedo in Roxy’s room, which was quite enough to overcome any background noise, especiallywhen using an industry standard microphone combined with a digital audio workstation,Logic Pro X (Apple, 2019). This allowed me to seamlessly integrate sounds that all serve thepurpose of enhancing the narrative, and replicate closely the initial ideations we did as ateam. Rekindling my abilities with sound design enabled me to create a meaningful piece of audio.

Technical restraints massively impacted the AR process; LensStudio (Lens Studio - LensStudio by Snap Inc., 2019), and any other 3D-related design software, is very demandingon computing power, and with these computers out of reach for the average student, I hadto make the most of the PCs available at university. Scarce in quantity, finding a device withLens Studio that wasn’t occupied was time consuming, and a block on the applicationpreventing access from multiple computers made the task even more of a chore. Theapplication shows its youth and lack of thorough online support, but I managed to make agood enough prototype during my sessions to show our vision clearly.

I was concerned that the diversity of our skills would mean our output wouldn’t becohesive. However, we’ve overcome this by all pitching in on ideas for each othersprofessions, allowing for us all to get new shared perspectives which has been crucial inaligning our vision and create something cohesive. Our group chat has enabled us to stayengaged, and all offer leadership when the team needs it - for example, the team noticedour exhibition ended on quite a dim note, so to amend this I put forward the idea of havinga QR code come up at the end with a “fish positivity” experience, highlighting beautifulfacts about fish whilst the user interacts with a virtual fish.

Ultimately, the prototype successfully raises awareness about the negative impact ofgenerative AI, enhanced by the audio and visual displays. Using AR added a new layer ofinteraction to the project, helping users to form a deeper connection with the informationand also allowed for a lighter end to a dim topic.

While the intentions of the AR prototype is clear, the technical limitations have preventedproper integration into the demonstration, in retrospect, more thought and research shouldhave gone into the requirements and setbacks of AR design along with the accessibility ofit. However, the set back with this allowed me to further enhance a polished andproduction-ready audio file to accompany the presentation.

The project aligns with our theme of society, highlighting a real-life, eco-system effectingissue that we are all contributing towards through our use of generative AI. Combining anarray of design, collaboration and team-management skills, we have created a memorable,meaningful and interactive exhibition that would be remembered by the majority of visitors.

Personal Development

This Co-Lab exposed a gap in my critical analysis of limitations when learning newsoftware. It’s crucial that the reality of the proposed tasks being completed in a professionalmanner, taking accessibility, compatibility, limitations (especially technical) and possibleoutcomes / setbacks is taken into consideration going forward. Moving forward, I aim torefine my platter of skills on AR and web design, to enhance my capabilities and thus myappeal to design teams

Bibliography

Right/Left Project (2025). A Right/Left Project. [online] A Right/Left Project.Available at: https://www.arightleftproject.com/projects.
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Apple (2019) Logic Pro X, Apple (United Kingdom). Available at: https://www.apple.com/uk/logic-pro/.
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Figma (2021) Figma: the collaborative interface design tool., Figma. Available at:https://figma.com.
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Fleury, M. and Jimenez, N. (2025). ‘I can’t drink the water’ - life next to a US datacentre. BBC News. [online] 10 Jul. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8gy7lv448o
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.Fowler, S. (2021) ‘Using Augmented Reality, London Takes Its Art to the Streets’,The New York Times, 18 June. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/arts/london-art-walk-outdoor-sculpture.html.
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Hammond, G. and Nicolaou, A. (2025) Disney to invest $1bn in OpenAI,@FinancialTimes. Financial Times. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/37917e22-823a-40e2-9b8a-78779ed16efe (Accessed: 12 December 2025).
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Kenny, R., Lunj, A. and Kis, A. (2025). AI’s thirst for water – UK GovernmentSustainable ICT. [online] Blog.gov.uk. Available at: https://sustainableict.blog.gov.uk/2025/09/17/ais-thirst-for-water/
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.Lens Studio - Lens Studio by Snap Inc. (2019) Snapchat.com. Available at: https://lensstudio.snapchat.com/.Lightroom (2023).
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David Hockney: Bigger & Closer. [online] Lightroom. Available at:https://lightroom.uk/whats-on/david-hockney/.Manchester Museum (2025).
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Manchester Museum. [online] Triceratops: Eat, Roam,Repeat. Available at: https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/event/triceratops.
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Notion – One workspace. Every team. (2022) Notion. Available at: https://notion.so.
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Taha, A. and Olufemi, A. (2023). Data centres ‘straining water resources’ as AIswells. [online] SciDev.net. Available at: https://www.scidev.net/global/scidev-netinvestigates/data-centres-straining-water-resources-as-ai-swells/.