As one approaches there is an encounter with 2 floor-to-ceiling length curved walls made out of thin, semi-transparent plastic sheets: The space between them–though not a separate room as there are two permanent openings–creates the notion, as one enters, of being in a semi-private enclosure. Immediately upon entering, one confronts a series of rows of 6-10ft. long by 2-3ft. wide sheets of mirrored mylar hanging from the ceiling and filling the enclosure. Upon slightly further exploration, though, one will find an opening in the middle of the mylar that contains 2 raised platforms facing each other, each with a set of handrails emerging from the top inviting one to climb up and grab hold.
The handrails detect the pulse of the grabber and will, subsequently, send the signal out to transducers attached the mylar sheets, causing them in turn to pulse in a rhythmic fashion determined by the participants flow of blood. And, suddenly, the room has become an extension of the body controlled, in part, by the participant’s own blood flow. Additionally, there will be mylar shapes dotting the ceiling that will have a projector bouncing light off of them spreading out around the space. These, too, will be connected to transducers causing the light in the room to move in sequence with the participant’s pulse.
Each platform’s pulse reader will be attached to half of the mylar panels in the room, so that when there are two participants–each standing on a platform–the internal negotiations that take place when confronting another (whether a stranger or loved one) will be amplified as each one’s pulse will be noticeably spread throughout the room and will affect the other’s pulsing.
Though there are two main entry points into the installation, the paper light materials are pliable, and in one sense totally porous. The outer parenthesis of plastic will enclose a cube shaped structure made from mylar layered in space. Though enclosure here is physically non-existent, as the mylar never connects, it visually presents itself as such from various perspectives inside, within the most inner center of the installation. All the speaker wire from each transduced piece of mylar will collect itself to form a grid roof, and will be elegantly braided in the center. A laptop, 2 digital projectors, 16 channel mixer and accompanying wires, will all be stored within a custom central platform, which also houses the pulsing technology used to move the mylar. The two digital projectors will be used as a means to affect the lighting of the installation at an environmental scale, rather than create a centralized image-based experience. The projectors will utilize the reflective material as a means to create dynamic patterns of light throughout the entirety of the space, every inch responding to each persons touch and voice in real time. The resulting construction will allow for a maximum sense of enclosure while maintaining a totally open floor plan, with gravity as the only defining structure, and the pulse of our heart and bloodflow as the only sound.
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