Made up of over 151 individually tuned sound and light cones, “Project Distortion” is a parametric installation that mixes light, sound, space and infinitely altered reflections into fantastic reality. It is a result of teaching-based research collaboration between CITA, Department 8 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York.
This mobile pavilion is digitally fabricated and reconfigurable, focusing on acoustic and visual performance and its interaction with the visitors of the Copenhagen Distortion Festival at Pumpehu, where it was exhibited in 2010. Splashing curious fragments of light onto the ground and its surroundings, the mobile installation visited four music venues during the festival taking center stage outdoors, in a small nightclub, on the street and in a crowded lobby. During the all-night parties, visitors could inhabit the structure that revealed a kaleidoscopic golden surface reflecting movement, light, sound and color.
The pavilion’s structure is based on the behavior of textiles.The shape is generated within a defined matrix through folding and crumbling. This allows for the textile to adapt to different situations and sites. A physics engine was used to simulate the behavior of the structures underlying hinged equilateral triangles. A digital environment was created where the influence of gravity and the textiles crumbling can be directly observed in the design process. This was driven by parameters of space, acoustic performance and social interaction.
