Liquid Lightbending

The intent behind the project is clear and responds to direct cultures of the CMU campus, which is smart for a site specific work. However, don’t feel like your installation needs to be problem-centered. A beautiful, interesting experience is equally valid as a pointed one. And there’s plenty that you can do with water to create stunning effects. Don’t be afraid to experiment and be less purposeful!

The idea is interesting but there’s not a lot of detail right now.
- What scale do you imagine this operating at? How tall, wide etc is it?
- Do you have references to the method for water bending that can be presented?
- How does it create a space rather than just a small object of interest?
- No site in the library is identified. Where will this live and why?
- How is media used (sound or visual) and how does it interact with the water? What is the nature of the media you’re going to deploy (visual quality, etc.).

In addition, working with the combination of water and electricity is a dangerous one. What are your considerations for safety and how do you build them into the deployment?

If a pump can’t be sourced, how do you imagine the interaction unfolding? How do you signal to a audience member that they can interact with it and how they can do it? How do you make this obvious?

In terms of the proposal it need to be fleshed out a lot more. A sketch (even a simple drawing would be really helpful).

But it seems like there’s a lot of mechanisms that are needed to make this work. That introduces a lot of breaking points and a lot of potential pitfalls. Instead I’d recommend you simplify and explore the basic material properties of water. You can control and stage this a lot more.

If you want to flesh out the details I’m happy to take another look.

The idea sounds interesting, but I'm not sure about the practicality of it. Depending on the size of your installation and the final decisions on what electricity/materials you'll need, it might get difficult to put together. I'm also wondering if this will be something that students play with on their way between classes/meetings, or if it's just going to be something that we'll see during our class demonstration. Your idea is really unique though, I'm excited to see the final product.

I like the idea of waterbending with static electricity; it's very creative! I do worry about how this creates a space, however. Perhaps you could create a few shallow puddles or create a waterfall along a wall (albeit a small one since a large one may be a logistical nightmare). Also, if you used balloons, you would have to tie them to strings or something so that people wouldn't just take them (unless you want them to, but then you'd have to restock often). With a little more thought and experimentation, I think this could be a cool installation. I want to see how this turns out. :)

I really like this idea of waterbending through electricity! It also corresponds well with CMU and Hunt. But it does seem a little bit hard to realize since the actual installation would ask for a lot of logistical concerns. Besides what people have already said about the project, I feel like another thing would be how the water is going to fall and whether the static electricity produced by friction can actually produce the desired effects. I hope it can work out and look forward to the project!

Your outcome turns out to be beautifully presented, and it incorporates water as a material well. I think the idea of using the reflection and refraction of light in water is brilliant and smart, and the animated colorful patterns projected through water creates a different spatial experience in the study room. I would suggest that you project the patterns not only on a single wall, but try to create an environment of colors by projecting them on all walls or even the ceiling and the ground.