The Art of Bloom - Interactive Exhibition

The Project

“Throughout history, people have seen flowers as vessels to project all kinds of meanings and messages. At our happiest and saddest, at our birth and death, flowers have always been by our side. Perhaps we see a reflection of ourselves in them, full of life and fragile at the same time.

Symbiosis is the theme of the debut installation of The Art of Bloom. Flowers have instilled in us great meaning and symbols. In turn, we cultivate flowers to help convey our deepest emotions, signal change, and celebrate life stages. Humans and flowers are stimulated by one another, reacting to each other to learn and grow.

Showers of petals, light, and sound will awaken our senses, and create a meditative space to connect to a deeper state of mind.”

At b1n4ry Visuals we were asked to develop a custom hardware and software solution to create the lighting, interactivity and audio for the experience. We used thermal sensors to track people based on their body temperature to illicit a sense of connection with the flowers, and your impact on them. We used microscopic scans to create the content system that was projection mapped on the floor, and we also mirrored this content on the LEDs running through the flower array overhead, both the method of content creation and the display of that content represents the concept “As above, So below” to describe our cosmic dance through nature. The audio is an 8 channel spatialized sound system built in Max, and the lighting and content is managed and driven by the interactivity using Touchdesigner. These robust softwares allow a modular system that can be upgraded, adapted, and changed with ease.

Though completed on a short timeline, we are very thrilled with how this project turned out! I couldn’t have done it without my team!

The Team

Zac Layman - Creative Director, TouchDesigner Developer, Production Designer, Technical Director

Paul Elsberg - Producer, TouchDesigner Developer, Creative Technologist

Eric Davis - CAD and Industrial Design, Music Composer, Max Developer, Installation Assistant

Megan Matthews - Videography, Motion Design, Installation Assistant