Project Pitch: The Hugging Curtain

 

Inspired by my childhood, my project the Hugging Curtain is a fabric art piece that will give the audience the warm comfort of home. It is created with a hanging hoop of curtain-like material draped about 7ft from the floor. The material can be standard curtain fabric, or it can be something even softer like the fabric used to cover teddy bears. The motor controlled fabric will pull together once a sensor detects that there is someone inside the curtain hoop, enveloping the user in a small and cozy space with plenty of material to hug.

The setting of this piece can be at the corner of a room, reminiscent of my childhood home in China. Whenever I felt lonely, I would run to this window and twirl the curtain around me, creating a small private space and hug the curtains as if I was hugging a parent’s waist. I want to give the audience this same experience, so ideally this piece would be placed next to a glass window that can show the green rolling hills of countryside China.