A clever new installation at Barbican’s Curve Gallery in London is getting showered with praise. Devised by UK-based rAndom International, the “Rain Room” allows visitors to pass through a downpour without getting wet. The installation is set on a darkened stage solely lit by one large spotlight. Cameras map human movement in the 100-square-meter room and send instructions for the rain to move near people, yet not too near, as they traverse the space. Read more.

The installation is receiving favorable reviews from critics in the UK and abroad. Here’s how The Guardian describes the experience: “As visitors step up on to the stage, these identical vertical lines of driving rain begin to be repelled, as if each body is giving off a kind of invisible magnetic field. As you step further in, the rain closes around you, enveloping each silhouetted figure in a perfect cylindrical void. It is a startlingly surreal experience.”

“Rain Room” is more than an exhibition piece; it’s a psychological experiment. Part of the design team’s objective is to study visitors’ behavior as they find themselves surrounded by a rainshower while still remaining dry. Similar to previous installations, such as Audience and Swarm, the minds behind the project have been conducting research with the cognitive scientist Philip Barnard to analyze the relationship between people and new technologies. Learn more.

Post by Rebecca Fleischer

Photos courtesy rAndom International

by Architizer Editors

posted in exhibitions General

tagged Barbican, curve gallery, installation, rain room, random international

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