/experience the bioluminescence of jellies
//story
In the natural world, bioluminescent jellies glow when they’re disturbed. We've always been fascinated by this phenomenon and the beauty of this almost other-worldly spectacle. Jelly Swarm, our permanent installation at the Vancouver Aquarium, imitates this natural, reactive behaviour and allows aquarium visitors to surprise origami jellies into creating beautiful patterns of colour and light.
Inspired by the luminescent jelly fish found off the coast of British Columbia, Jelly Swarm features 94 carefully folded origami jellies (each containing an LED module) suspended from a reflective aluminum structure that hangs from the ceiling. As you move your hand across an interface on a plinth-mounted touch screen, the jellies respond in real-time. When left undisturbed by the public, the origami jellies — programmed as independent objects — interact with their closest neighbours, creating generative luminescent displays. We are incredibly proud to be the creators of this popular display piece at one of Vancouver's most prominent museums.Photo: Person Personson
//how it works
94 origami jellies made from Tyvek were laser cut and scored before folding. The Jelly Swarm structure was designed using Rhino 3D with Grasshopper and custom Visual Basic scripts. The resulting water jet cut 154 custom triangles and 430 connectors are fabricated from 2mm 6061T6 aluminum, anodized on both sides.
Lighting design and interactive was produced using a custom built Adobe Air application developed in Flash Builder. A bespoke ArtNet library implemented in Actionscript 3.0 sends data through an mbed based controller to the RGB LED light modules.
/artworks
/all
/architecture
/branded
/light
/museums
/music bands
/performance
/public art
/sound
super puff
noise
parasol
colouring app
helix
samsung graffiti
OH!
summit
bubbles
field
halo
hako
fireflies
winged
marshmallow…
shine with pride
alveoli
array
mini halo swarm
zygote stageset
anima
experience…
illuminate…
pulse
sound clouds
jelly swarm
cocoons
mist
seed of truce
picidae chorus
mikado
boxcam
imsound
line segments
imaginary friends
stalagmites
visitor
pixmob zygotes
voice it table
LED bottle wall
megaclouds
starburst
mo-cap graffiti…