Somnium
Kristen Smith | Glearda Sokoli | Nivin Nabeel | Valerie Gershman | Kevin Liu | Stephanie Wu | Charlotte Liu
For Toronto’s Nuit Blanche 2016, our team of one fashion and six architectural science students designed and built a public, atmospheric installation at Urbanspace’s 401 Richmond site.
SOMNIUM was conceived with inspiration from multiple sources: aquatic organisms, bioluminescence, fabric, and light. The result was a breathtaking experience through a space, where stepping around the modules made them come alive with light, sound, and motion.
Our site required that no installation damage the building before, during, and after the event, which meant that we had to design a superstructure to support the whole installation. Furthermore, we only had 2 evenings to set up the installation prior to the 12 hour event.
The first step was involved assembling the walls and the beams, prefabricated off-site, creating a ceiling grid that we could suspend the modules from. Once the beams were hoisted into place, we began hanging the modules while our two programming experts quickly began to wire, calibrate, and troubleshoot the code.
Nine fabric modules were equipped with PIR thermal sensors. Upon approach, the sensor transmitted information to on-board arduinos which were connected to a central unit, causing the fabric to undulate while the lights brightened and the installation came alive with hues of violet and blue. The local arduinos controlled servo motors and addressable LED lights on each module, while the central platform controlled the sound. Each module had a distinctive sound sample upon waking – combined with ambient aquatic music – they created an underwater garden of light, movement, and sound.