Interactive Architecture Lab wins groundbreaking commission

The Bartlett’s Interactive Architecture Lab has been awarded an art commission of €15,000 from Creative Europe for their immersive installation proposal ‘The Edge of Chaos’. The installation is one of three artwork commissions, having beaten 170 hopeful entries from 36 countries.

Starting in April 2018, the installation will tour La Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, the Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam and KIKK Festival in Namur, Belgium, inviting people to experience the balancing point between order and chaos. Visitors cross a haptic interactive surface, triggering chain reactions of light and movement that are either ordered or chaotic, depending on the circumstances. Fully activating the surface and surrounding blocks, which represent the chaotic universe, can bring forth ‘life’ in the form of a kinetic tree.

The installation speaks to the design process of the future, where new materials, technology and ideas are likely to emerge from turbulent processes and where artificial intelligence will play a major role. 

Vasilija Abramovic and Ruairi Glynn developed ‘The Edge of Chaos’ in partnership with engineer Bas Overvelde of the Soft Robotic Matter Group at AMOLF, Amsterdam. The project's early development was supported by The Bartlett Architecture Projects Fund as part of on-going research into ‘Multi-Stable Soft Robotic Structures’. 

• Find out more about our MArch Design for Performance and Interaction, led by Ruairi Glynn
• Watch a video about the three winning commissions