Chico MacMurtrie - Inflatable Architectural Body, Responsive Sculpture 2007

This work attempts to further develop the Inflatables technology while creating a new dialogue between man, machine, and architecture. In this work, I am modeling nature on a microscopic, fractal level. It comprises a system of plug-and-play, inflatable, musculoskeletal modules which allow me to design a series of transformative organic structures influenced by the exhibition space. The modular components can be freely connected and rearranged to produce sculptures of varied size, form, complexity and interactive possibility.
The "live" sections of the form are equipped with a simple sensing system that forces the sculpture into action. Your bodys motion in passing through the space functions as a type of force field that pushes the sculptures bones away from you as you are sensed, keeping the sculpture at a constant distance from you. Each bone can be selectively animated by the viewers movements allowing for endless interactive possibilities. If you are so inclined, your motion enables you to open it up, creating portals in that let you in and close behind you, giving an extremely different vantage point: life from the inside. In this way, the work is influenced by the nature of the environment—the space—as well as by the audience participants, who are engaged both physically and aesthetically with the constantly transforming structure.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• art
• architecture
• responsive
• sculpture
• organic
• Amorphic
• Robot
• Works

[BumperMorgan]

The hissing and dry "clonking" really give the piece a visceral quality. Really nicely executed.