This makes me feel Connected Enlightened Intrigued Surprised at an Individual but Shared scale
Cloud
In interactive cloud created from lightbulbs
Cloud was installed in 2012 in Alberta, Canada by artist Caitlind r.c. Brown. It was composed of 6,000 lightbulbs—5,000 burned out donated bulbs, and 1,000 working bulbs attached to chains. While standing beneath the light bulb sculpture, people could pull the chains of the working bulbs to switch them on and off. When you watch a video of the installation, you can see that it is very difficult to tell which bulb is controlled by which string. People end up packed in underneath the cloud, surrounded by strings and other people, trying to work out for themselves how to turn the cloud on or turn the cloud off. One pull can create a large area of lightness or darkness, because the burned-out bulbs reflect the light created by the working bulbs. In one satisfying moment in one of the videos I watched, someone counted down from 3, and finally everyone pulled their strings together. While it didn’t result in the cloud being entirely on, or entirely off, it did result in a single, large scale event. For some reason this was immensely satisfying after watching everyone playing with the cloud, seemingly either at odds with or unaware of everyone else doing the same thing.
Contributor notes
What is surprising, refreshing, most interesting?
I was surprised that so many people were willing to crowd into the small, entangled space under the cloud at the same time, and then also function completely separately from everyone else who was under there.
Key Insights? What can we learn from this?
You can create an experience in which a group of individuals chooses to function either in unison, or completely separately from each other all within a very confined space.