Random International's recent installation at the Barbican in London is a fusion of art, science and social experiment that enabled visitors to control the flow of water falling around them.
Situated
in the semi-circular gallery that wraps around the back of the Barbican Concert
Hall, visitors enter the installation between darkened walls that funnel them
towards the light and amplify the distant sound of showering water. Then,
suddenly, the rain ‘room’ appears. Structurally, the 100-square metre work is
simple enough. It is effectively a sandwich – a steel grid floor below an
identically sized finely gridded structure formed of I-beams suspended several
metres above, with a steady stream of water falling in between. Eight sensors,
four along each length, register movement and control the rainfall. But this
pragmatic description belies the experience of the work.
From
afar, the backlit cascade of falling water is animated by just a few people
within, which means that it’s difficult to work out whether or not – and how –
the rain falls. Faced with the falling sheets of rain and the subtlety of the
technology affecting it, one steps up to the downpour relying on trust – and,
in my case, a waterproof jacket. Once inside, it becomes clear that human
movement within is ‘seen’ by sensors overhead; the rain stops and starts with
variable intensity, depending on the tempo with which you move through it.
Looking up, the shifting arcs of droplets fall like soft diamonds around you
and I’m reminded of the effect of a heavy stone dropped into a lake. Here,
though, the concentric circles created are empty spaces that radiate through
the rain as you move through the room, interrupting rainfall.
