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A new exhibition at London's Barbican Centre has artificially simulated the illusion of 'dry' rain. The installation, entitled Rain Room (inventive), was created by Royal Collage of Art graduates Hannes Koch, Stuart Wood and Florian Ortkrass, and allows exhibition-goers to control the rain falling from the ceiling. Spectators will be able to step into the rain room but remain dry, whilst the rain falls around them - thanks to a complex series of 3D sensory cameras that map the user's position and alter the source of rainfall in the room.
If you move around slowly, the motion sensors will map your position and the rain overhead will stop (but if you run around in the rain room, you will outsmart the rain machine, but probably fall over - well done you.)
"By your sheer presence you can control the rain," said Koch. "There's no distractive sound, you are very close [to the rain] and it is beautiful as it becomes hypnotic and the sound of the rain is extremely calming. It is very different to having an umbrella as you don't have the sound of the rain battering on the umbrella," said Koch." The rain room will run at The Barbican Centre's Curve Room until March next year. |