Flurry

Artist: Eliot Rosenberg (Australia)

Collaborator: Kevin Smaller (Australia) / Rotem Shalem (Australia) / Jordon Blanket (Australia) / Nehal Selim (Australia) / Yuchen Wang (Australia) / Hitesh Dhanwani (Philippines) 

Flurry is an interactive ‘architectural sculpture’ that sits at the harbour’s edge, its curved organic shape and arches creating a vaulted tunnel on the way to the Sydney Opera House. The structure twists in on itself, forming two interior spaces attuned to movement.

Participants interact with the architectural entity by spinning and waving and dancing and jumping, their movements and gestures delivering personalised lighting performances that transform the translucent ‘skin’ of the structure with shifting waves of coloured light.

As Flurry interacts with the movements of each participant, its surface (or ‘skin’) becomes an elaborate, whirling garment; the architecture acting as an extension of the human body and a medium for human expression.  

The structure was designed to be entirely digitally fabricated using CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining for the purposes of ease of assembly, disassembly, replicability of parts, and precision.

It is composed mainly of aluminium, for its strength and lightweight characteristics, plus a thin membrane. This enables the form of the structure to open out from the inverted shape of a vaulted arch to the drama of a curved cantilevered canopy, framing views of Sydney Harbour. The triangular skin plates act as both a surface for the architectural form and a trussed frame that binds the radially aligned ribs together into a solid and stable structure.

Flurry is a participatory and expressive structure that engages with its visitors; it demonstrates powerful new ways of experiencing built structures through the application of interactive technology and it utilises architectural design features to create a sculptural aesthetic.  

Country represented by installation: Australia