Title: Silk Ocean (WIP)

Location: Basement Hallway to Photo Booth

We are looking to achieve a billowing fabric effect for visitors that walk down the hallway. The ceiling and walls would have separate fabrics with a gradient of colors illustrating a sunset over an ocean. The cloth on the ceiling would be translucent to affect the harsh lights currently in the hallway. The ceiling cloth would be displaced quickly with a counterweighted pulley or linear actuator and gravity would slowly bring it down along the length of the tunnel. The cloth on the walls would become more slanted shrinking the hallway as you walk down it using fans to blow under them. A visitor would interact with this piece by triggering the fabric with a motion sensor changing the mechanism’s state from ambient to triggered: the piece would have some sort of gentle/periodic ambient state and a harsher triggered state for contrast. In addition, we are considering making the fans moveable on a rail as a more interactive tactile experience for visitors to affect the ripple of the cloth on the walls.

Bill of Materials (Draft)

  • Large cloth (dyed) for walls – probably silk or polyester, will dye it ourselves with acid dye
  • Large translucent cloth for ceiling
  • Fishing line or twine
  • Eyebolts or equivalent for ceiling attachment methods
  • Wall attachment methods – clamps? Screws? Need to check with building facilities
  • Two fans
  • Rail or equivalent to move fans along walls
  • Ultrasonic sensor or equivalent for a motion sensor
  • Likely some kind of micro controller to interface with the motion sensor
  • Linear actuators or equivalent with gear, pulley, and counterweights
  • LEDs or other kinds of atmospheric lights

Concrete Milestones

  • Milestone 1: Implementing Ceiling Mechanism (before 3/28)
    • create upward force that can lift a sheet of cloth
    • uses gravity to slowly reset the cloth to an ambient position
  • Milestone 1.5: Scaling this Mechanism Up (by 3/30)
  • Milestone 1.75: Remotely Actuating or Activating this Mechanism (by 4/4)
  • Milestone 2: Implementing Wall Mechanism (by 4/6)
    • creates ripple along length of hallway
    • uses moveable fans likely utilizing different speeds for each mechanism state
  • Milestone 2.5: Scaling this Mechanism Up (by 4/8)
  • Milestone 2.75: Integrating the Ceiling and Wall Mechanism to be Remotely Activated from the same location/device (before 4/11)
  • Milestone 3: Creating a refined experience with both mechanisms (by 4/18)
    • includes adding LEDs or using other lighting effects to negate the brightness of the current hallway’s lights
    • integrating the ceiling and wall cloths’ movements to be synchronous or asynchronous to create a hypnotic or conflicting effect
  • Important Dates:
  • Mar 28: Proof of Concept
  • Apr 11: Prototype demo
  • Apr 21: Opening show