Artistic Inquiry – How can we create a drastically different world within a case?
The most drastically different environment I could think of was underwater, and when I thought of places I want to travel to with a suitcase, I thought of Hawaii, with its coral reefs. It would also work as a theme of preservation, given what the reefs are going through currently.
As for tying the theme with the suitcase, I had the idea of using a plastic case that scuba divers bring with them to store equipment. While the actual thing is probably very expensive, we can get a similar plastic case from Amazon for fairly cheap.
To create an underwater coral scene, I decided on a few things to bring into the case, as depicted below.
Individual components are listed in more detail below.
For the components, I was thinking of using mostly light fabric and plastic, and using the flat acrylic coral to hide the electronics and wiring. For the mood lighting, I was thinking of having a spotlight with a blue filter hang at the top of the lid of the case.
A cheap ultrasonic sensor in the octopus could alert when viewers are coming near, and would cause the fish to swim faster (as if startled), and cause the octopus to fully pull in its tentacles. The coral could also move faster (spin fan faster), as if reacting to the fish’s movements.