Dominic Harris and Cinimod Studio have created Ice Angel – an interactive installation that you can see as part of London Design Festival 2012 at the V&A. Stand in front of the screen, move your arms up and down as if you’re flying, and your angel wings will appear behind you. Inspired by snow angels, the device responds to each person’s unique proportions and movements to create angel wings bespoke to them. It even remembers these things, so if the same person returns after a day, a month, a year, it will recreate those same wings.
The 2.7m² by 10cm thick screen is made of laser cut steel and 6.500 white LEDs set behind frosted acrylic. There is a camera mounted above the participant to provide an overhead view (a front-mounted camera would have provided much easier data to code, but would have obstructed the audience’s view). The height of the person’s head, and the distance and height of their hands are used to calculate the size and shape of their ‘wings’ based on standard human proportions. There are weight cells within the plinth that gather biometric data – used to create the ‘memory’.
The installation not only demands participation but also removes observation, so the only angel you can’t see is your own. Dominic Harris says: “Through this curious role reversal, the viewer becomes the subject of a living portrait, with their hidden angel revealed for all to see”.
Call me an old romantic, but I love the idea of a hidden angel in each of us.
Ice Angel at Design Days Dubai 2012
