Aurora Ceiling

// Who Solo project

// What A beautiful interactive experience that displays the moving properties of wind

// When Completed November 2017

// Where “Energy” exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Denver

// Why To activate a previously unused part of the exhibit and provide guests with an opportunity to experiment with the incredible power of wind

// How A lot of material research went into the initial ideation phase of this project. I experimented with small aluminum squares, Mylar, reflective tape, and over ten kinds of fabrics. The final result is a medium weight copper colored fabric that shimmers in the light. Once the fabric was chosen, I cut around 1,500 strips at various lengths by hand (about 15 yards of fabric) and arranged them in the proper order. CNC’d Baltic Birch plywood made up the frame while rubber u-channel strips pressed over the fabric to secure each piece to its corresponding wooden rib, making for easy removal should a piece ever need to be replaced. Mounting brackets were secured in the ceiling a day before and final installation took about fifteen minutes (the panels were surprisingly lightweight, even with all of that fabric). The red lights (leftover from a previous installation) helped provide additional contrast between the strips that were still and moving.