16 October 2012

Manipulatiing falling water for art


An art installation at the Barbican invites visitors to walk through a torrential downpour controlled by sensors and cameras that stop the water directly above the visitor.

I found it interesting that the cameraman chose not to walk through with the video equipment.  Even more interesting were the two descriptions offered by the artists.  The first one presents it as an enjoyable social experiment, but a very serious artist Hannes Koch presents the "art-speak" version of what is going on:
"It's about the simulation of the natural environment, bringing that closer to human scale,  making it tangible for people to experience, and starting to experiment with all the different possibilities that it gives us to control natural environment."
The same concept was employed in a "waterfall swing" at World Maker Faire 2011, in which persons on playground-type swings swing through a waterfall that ceases as they go by.  The video is posted at Neatorama.

Embedded video via Kottke.

1 comment: