Other Team Members: Guiqiang Yao, Jiafeng Li, Jiawen Li, Xiaoqi Chen, Lushan Ao, Jiebei Yang
<Inspiration>
Starting since the winter of 2016, we volunteered in Zhejiang Blind School, where we helped with classes and took care of kids' daily lives. From 6-12, those kids are at their golden age of exploring the nature and new things around them, while it was greatly limited by their health conditions. We saw kids standing under sun facing the light and trying to feel the sunshine; their touching the noon window, curious about how windows became so warm. These little angels shall be blessed with the same rights to learn and to feel the world. How can we help them learn about light? How can we bring light to their lives?
“What is light and what is shadow?”
<Ideation>
The goal is to help kids learn light in "natural world" through a fun and relaxing way. Located in the center of the school, that circle-shaped playground which could hold more than 30 kids is very popular among children. Surrounded by vegetarians, it is an ideal site to do something with shadows and lights.
Playground under light
Playground in shadow
What is the most intuitive way to help kids learn about light? What are they interested in? More importantly, what is a more user-friendly way for kids to feel about light? In our research, kids are mostly sensitive to shape change, as they are trained to touch blind words to read and walk on blind signal walkways to tell directions. They are also pretty sensitive to temperature change.
<Design>
Inspired by the researches, the final installation is composed of thousands of units, each of which could expand with light and shrink back to its original shape without. Simultaneously, its temperature changes, raising up with light and dropping down without. In this way, the transformation of each unit is telling whether it's in shadow or under sunlight. Thousands of unit thus compose of a complete installation, which could tell the light of trees by changing every minute, every hour and every day. Kids could touch the wall, walk on the ground and run after each other, feeling the light.
Minute
11:01 AM
11:04 AM
11:02 AM
11:05 AM
11:03 AM
11:06 AM
Hour
7 AM
8 AM
12 PM
3 PM
Season
Spring / Autumn Equinox
Winter Solstice
Summer Solstice
Year
<Construction>
The IR sensor is connected to battery, which gets the signal of movements, and then passes that to the electromagnet. After receiving the movement signal, it stretches out to change surface shape. Each Unit is controlled by its own electromagnet. When there is light, it produces electric floats, which controls the small robot arm to stretch out. This sensitive wall is composed of around 200 changeable units. Each single unit responds differently due to the light condition, then the blind people could feel about light and shadow change.
