Studio Roosegaarde’s Lotus Dome at the Rijksmuseum
Art Story #2: Interactive Art
A few days ago, on February 7th, The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam displayed Daan Roosegaarde’s Lotus Dome at the Beuning Room.
What is the Lotus Dome? The entrance to the Beuning Room at the Rijksmuseum tells us:
Daan Roosegaarde investigates how art and information technology can humanize the world. Ranging from fashion to architecture, his work is characterized by the interaction between art, people and technology.
The Lotus Dome is a reactive dome made of Lotus Foil. This material was developed by Studio Roosegaarde and consists of several layers of Mylar, an ultra-lightweight light, and shade. When you approach the Lotus Dome the metal flowers open up. The warmth from a single hand or a group of passers-by causes the dome to react either calmly or very excitedly. What is so special about this work is that you are allowed to touch it, unlike other works of art in a museum.
Before it was displayed at the Rijksmuseum, the Lotus travelled around Europe, China and even reached the Zedekiah’s Cave in Jerusalem. At each location the experience of the Lotus was completely different. A castle, a cave, a church or a museum all give us a strange and unsettling feeling once the lights are turned off.
The Lotus fills up the entire room located on the first floor of the Rijksmuseum. When entering the dark room the round structure comes to life. It follows you as you surround it, shines light at your direction and gives you the feeling like you are in the presence of something almost alive. As I walked around the Dome, a soft sound came from the center of the flower. There are no boundaries that separate the viewer from the art work and for some reason I reached and almost touched the silver flower. Second later, new visitors came into the room and the Lotus Dome immediately greeted them with his light.
On his description of the Lotus Dome, Studio Roosegaarde explains:
Lotus 7.0 is a living wall composed of smart foils that fold open in response to human behavior. Walking by Lotus, hundreds of aluminum foils unfold themselves in an organic way; generating transparent voids between private and public. Via Lotus, physical walls are made immaterial, giving way to poetic morphing of space and people. As the futuristic vision on the Renaissance Lotus Dome merges elements of architecture and nature into an interactive environment.
In October of last year I attended a two-day of inspiration symposium in the beautiful city of Antwerp. Integrated 2013 introduced me to wonderful speakers, one of which was Daan Roosegaarde. Daan’s interactive designs such as Dune (public interactive landscape that interacts with human behavior), Crystal (hundreds of crystals of light which brighten when you touch them; while Daan calls them ‘Lego from mars’, I like to think of them as futuristic mosaics), Smart Highway (more sustainable and interactive roads) and many more immediately got my attention.
Daan founded Studio Roosegaarde in 2006, less than a year after he received his MA in architecture. He is a Dutch artist, designer and architect who combines technology, architecture and nature in tactile high-tech works of art. His works won many prestigious prizes world-wide, and were displayed in important cultural institutes such as Tate Modern and V&A in London, The National Museum in Tokyo and various public spaces in Rotterdam and Hong Kong.
His first book Interactive Landscapes by Adele Chong and Timo de Rijk was published in 2010 by Nai Publushers, Rotterdam. The book features interviews with the artist and an overview of his recent and future projects. Timo de Rijk beautifully summed up what attracted me to Daan’s work:
Roosegaarde’s work requires no instructions for use or signage. There is no interface that mediates between hand, eye or body and complex technology. In fact, the work itself is usually the interface.
Roosegaarde’s art is first and foremost about the users, just like real products and their design in the primary sense of the word. Remarkably, the modern-day quest to identify the difference between design and art… seems irrelevant in his work. Art critic Camiel van Winkel and design critic Max Bruinsma both claim to have coined the idea that design is evolving into art while all art has become design… In its new habitat of galleries and museums, design has adopted the codes of art in order to focus attention on the designer’s intentions.
The Lotus Dome will be on display at the Rijksmuseum until May 5th, so make sure you don’t miss this unique experience.
To conclude this second Art Story with a smile, take a look at these interactive works of art that brings humor, fun and innovation into the art world by Aparna Rao:
