Inspired by chromatherapy and the theme of wellness from the client’s branding, we proposed an immersive sculptural light installation. The piece links the therapeutic practice of breathing exercises with a dynamic performative light sculpture.
London.
2019
Crossroads - Interactive Set Design for TEDx Wanchai
“What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters.” Charles Baudelaire
Intersections are nodes, joints, meeting points, defining points, changes in direction. They are starting points, end points, and divergent.
The city today consists of grids, nodes and routes. Within this we interact, collide and create. The frantic order and frequency of these interactions is either 1/ constructive, 2/ destructive or 3/ passive. In this manner, the binary decisions we make exist beyond those which are at first perceived. Collectively, they take on larger meanings.
Within this context, we seek to explore the constraints of the city whilst showing its sporadic and frenetic nature at various scales. From the city grid down to the individual, all components have relationships which intersect to formulate the present.
For this years’ TEDx Wanchai, BLOOM have installed a 100m2 interactive sculptural backdrop. A responsive paraboloid hangs in space. Live data from the audience occupancy levels sculpt the music,
lighting and movement of the piece. Every individual entering the theatre produces a light flicker, a jolt in the movement, a disruption, translating the occupant directly into part of this abstract city grid.
‘Change is an aligned and collective process created through a series of intersections’. BLOOM. 2016.
Special thanks to Eppie Lau, Alan Pun, TEDx Wanchai Volunteers, Vincent Ng, Anna Robb, Martine McKenna, Shelly Govila, Suvi Polonen, Cesar Jung-Harada, Fiona Ching, Jacky Chu, Gilles Peterson, and everyone who helped to make this possible.
Bungee Cord office space
With Polylab. By using partitions of horizontal bungee cord an environment is created that can be stretched and transformed as changes are required.
London, UK.
2010
Confluence – 合
The interactive Hanging Wall, 合, was positioned in the centre courtyard of PMQ for deTour 2017. Hanging from a centralised truss, the piece takes advantage of the large vertical space and creates a dramatic sculpture which floats in the void of the cathedral-like space, as a gateway to the exhibition.
The interactive sculpture was controlled by its occupants via 18 floor-mounted pressure sensors which in turn switched off a light corresponding to the position of the occupant. The input was regulated through an Arduino which was programmed to repeat previous inputs, creating a ghost effect.
Special Thanks to Alan Pun, Dennis Jason, Bart Wissink, Lara van Meeteren, Colin Chauche, Pheobe Yeung, Eppie Lau, Anna Robb, Shin Wong, Fiona Ching, Rupert Inman, Makerbay, Paul Wheelan, Cesar Harada, Kitti Wong, Shin Wong, Garlai Lau, Tomer Samson, Alin Tse, Eric Chiu, Jack Pun, Chingyi Pau and many others who came together to make it happen!
PMQ, Hong Kong, 2017
Images by Pheobe Yeung, Dennis Jason and Alan Pun
Video By Alan Pun
ONE: The Self. The Few. The Many
This entry for an open competition to design a pavilion for West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong was done as a collaboration between Bloom Collective and an extended select design team. We call it BLOOM+.
With ONE: The Self, The Few, The Many, we seek to unite the various aspects of Hong Kong in a single habitable space and iconic form.
As a singular continuous gesture, ONE encapsulates the fluid transition of thresholds between personal, social and public space – composing three distinct spatial experiences of The Self, The Few, and The Many.
The proposal, selected by a large panel of designers and officials including Thomas Heatherwick and Sou Fujimoto was shortlisted, narrowly missing out on the winning category .
Design Team: Bloom+ (Matthew DONKERSLEY, Arnold WONG Yok Fai, Allen CHAU Shek Lun, Benjamin William Blanning GOUGH, Emily YAN Hei Men, Richard J WOOD )
Hong Kong
2017
Dancing with Inertia is a performance consisting of a choreographed dance through a series of spatial interventions, activated by a live composition. Simultaneous interactions between these three elements create a dynamic and at some points frenetic relationship between the body, space and time.
The structures are intended as traces, moments or fragments of tracked movements through the space. Their forms are derived from filming and 3D scanning the dancer [Jingyee Shen] as she performed. Designed through physical models and 3D modelling software, the pieces were fabricated by hand using bamboo and aluminium. The series of structures are inserted into the space, creating obstructions between the dancer and the architectural form in order to restrain and distort movement; adapting the body to the space. These physical obstructions are intended to implement a choreographed movement on the dancer or inhabitant as they move through the space. The obstructions visualize the dynamic relationship between the dancer and architectural space by generating a physical interaction between architectural form and its inhabitants, creating a sculptural performance.
The performance was filmed, photographed and scanned in order to create a design process loop; The scans, photographs, models, will be reinterpreted as new hybrids to build the next project, which in turn will create more data in an endless process of reiterative, transformative interactions between structures, people, music and computing.
The piece was originally designed for temporay deployment at the Zendai Himalayas Museum in Shanghai. Due to its successs, it was later relocated to the long museum and subsequently a burn festival in the Anhui Province, China.
Disruptive Theatre is an interactive installation designed and fabricated by Ben Gough with Heechan Park and Elena Thatcher as part of the Bartlett School of Architecture’s Unit 14 Disruptive Technologies Exhibition at LondonNewcastle Space, Redchurch Street, It investigates the perception of the self through in interactive live stream which allows users to enter a three dimensional abstraction of themselves
London, UK.
2010
In collaboration with Unknown Works, This proposal for a festival in Hong Kong utilises the idea of occupancy and uses it to create physical space within a temporary pavilion. A grid of powerful fans sit below a raised floor. When users occupy a space above the fans, the fans are actuated. Fabric hanging above is blown apart creating a physical space for the occupants.
Proposed for Clockenflap, Hong Kong, 2016
Interactive Insertion @ WING Platform, Hong Kong
By exploring the dynamic of the barricade; as object and refusal; as architecture and symbol, architects Bloom Collective will radically transform the performance space at WING by appropriation of the existing built fabric as a remark on the notion of city. This appropriation will occupy a vast amount of the space with an intervention as live performance. The intervention is an exercise in space as defined against place – as a series of 3D scanners will capture the evolution of the physical data throughout the performance. The performance will create a dynamic, transforming space where two regular, rule based structural systems are built. As these two systems grow towards each other, they create a dialogue. They mesh and create a third, more dense system. The space will transition from porous (accessible) to a nonporous (barricade) space over time.
Special Thanks to Craig Cooper, Hong Kong Baptist University, Tom and Lesley Van Eyck
Knitting machine installation exhibited at the Redchurch Gallery, London, with the Bartlett school of Architecture Unit 14. The installation was composed of hacked Knitting machine toys which were automated and programmed to interact with visitors. The devices were calibrated to record visitor-machine interactions via continuous and destructive knit patterns. Over the course of the exhibition fabric columns grew, spilling onto the gallery floor, creating a new topography and terrain of experience that was encoded with the tangible richness of previous visitor interactions.
London, 2010
As Part of the RIBA Competitions programme, Bloom Collective designed the visitors centre with adaptability and muti-use in mind. With a rain screen cladding covering a large area, only smaller internal forms need to be heated constantly. A large open space for events and a separate building for utilities allows the building to be opened by different users at various times during the day without full time staff.
An interactive installation proposal by BLOOM collective for a Hong Kong based international clothing company to demonstrate the beauty and tactility of their Chinese silk
Hong Kong.
2016
