Substance-less
Burst Week
Collaborative Project
2018



This large scale inflatable installation is the product of a Burst Week. An intradepartmental week where all four years of Interactive Media Design collaborate intensively to produce a piece within five days. During this week we were led by Maarten Keus.




The work is an architectural experiment to play with the idea of how a lack of substance can nonetheless fill a room.

Inside of a large room with a high ceiling we use a thin film of plastic, several micrometers thick, to create, deflate and inflate pockets of intimate spaces for humans to interact and play.

Using a microphone and ultrasonic distance sensor we sense the environment and atmosphere of the room. This data is used for the inflatables to inflate and deflate based on sound levels and movement throughout the room.

If the visitors remained quiet and stand far apart from one another, the balloon sculptures would inflate, thus creating more intimacy. If the visitors would pack up to each other and produce more chatter and noise the inflatables would deflate, thus creating more space. This interplay creates a balance between spaciousness and intimacy and is maintained by the feedback-loop between the environment and it’s users.





Prototyping
To manufacture these inflatables we experimented with several types of plastics, fans and  “soft-mechanic” air valves. A few images of these prototypes can be found below.







Collaborators
Maarten Keus, Samriddhi Ghattak, Iseult Pigot, Paul Tesselaar & Ines Delgado

Hardware
Industrial Fans, Arduino Mega, Relay Modules, Ultrasonic Sensor, Contact Microphones, Speakers

Software
Arduino IDE


©2023 Jeroen Alexander Meijer