TIME DROP
artistic statement: to create a unique, thought provoking experience by blending art and engineering that challenges human perception.
About: Along with a creative partner, I designed and engineered a 15 ft HEXAGONAL, immersive, INTERACTIVE, STROBOSCOPIC, INFINITe rain room. Strobing LED’s coupled with oscillating water pumps create the optical illusion of water droplets that defy gravity. A Max MSP program manipulates the rate of the led’s, along with music that is playing via MIDI controller input, ultimately allowing the user to control a stroboscopic infinity room.
Time Drop is currently being scaled for production for guest play at 2020 summer music festivals.
Skills: 3D Printing, 3D Modeling (SolidWorks), Carpentry, Circuitry, Electrical, FEA, Fluid Dynamics, Hydraulics, LED’s, Microcontroller, Motor Controls, Programming (C++/Arduino, Max MSP), Relay Switches, Wiring.
EXPERIENCE: Inside this room it is raining and music is playing. Hundreds of tiny lights poke through the darkness and vanish off into the distance. In the center, a lone knob EMITTING VIBRANT blue light sits atop a PODIUM. If rotated, the rate at which the rain droplets are falling slowly decreases until the droplets levitate right before your eyes. Simultaneously the music slows down, slower and slower, until the song EVENTUALLY gets stuck in some strange equilibrium.
time has been stopped.
If the knob is turned further, the water droplets begin to rise upwards, faster and faster, and the song starts to play again, only backwards, faster and faster.
Time has been reversed.
Inside of Time Drop it is possible to control the rate and direction of time.
Time Drop Video
Proof of concept and early testing to determine the number of outlet valves and the consistency of the droplets that can be produced from one oscillating pump.
The next step was to design and build a 15 foot wide hexagonal infinity, the opposing walls were built as close to parallel as possible to enhance the infinity room effect.
An A-frame roof with sloping rafters was built and large mirrors were installed to cover every wall surface, creating a series of reflections that appear to recede to an infinitely far vanishing point.
Using custom 3D printed couplers, servo motors were mounted to ball valves, allowing motorized control over the opening and closing of each water spout in order to achieve uniform pressure drops..
The spout assemblies were mounted to the rafters and interconnected with vinyl tubing, enabling water to be transported and dispersed systematically throughout the room.
Oscillating pumps, which by design pump volumes of liquid 60 times per second, were spring mounted and the inlet/outlet vinyl tubing was looped to dampen pump vibrations in order to maintain laminar water flow. Relay switches power on/off each individual pump by way of programmed rotary encoders.
The oscillating pumps are connected to the network of motorized spouts inside of of the room and a system of collector buckets put in place to catch the falling water.
Two sump pumps sit outside the room and feed the incoming water into a 30 gallon reservoir, from which the oscillating pumps pull water to be pumped back into the room, completing a closed loop water system.
Water proof LED’s strands were strung up inside the room, and a bank of MOSFETS designed and wired to control the strobe rate and duty cycle of the LED’s. A decorative eagles head was also installed and equipped with an water outlet in each of its eyes.
A Max MSP program was written to synchronize and manipulate both the rate of the strobing LED’s, via the MOSFETs, as well as the audio play back speed. Three Arduino microcontrollers paired with rotary encoders control the motorized water spouts and power on/off the oscillating pumps.
A customized midi controller, which glows blue and sits alone on a podium in the center of the room, is interfaced with the Max MSP software and allows users to interact with the room. Blown mirrored glass shapes cover the ground area crating a stunning visual effect.
A view of the control knob podium and the mirrored shapes along the ground from the platform which a group of up to 6 people stand inside Time Drop.
A view of the lights and mirrors - the infinity room without any water running.
A true labor of love, Time Drop was completed in November of 2019.