Main work for comparison: Water Games.

The Water Games installment was devised as a way to promote understanding amoung people and a respect amoung diversity. It achieves this goal by getting the ‘users’ to collaborate in turning around the fountain as a sign of ‘working for peace’ and by doing so will turn the fountain on.

There are 9 fountains in total, that are spead around an area of 1200 meters squared. Each fountain has the ability to shoot water upto 2.5 meters into the air when activated.

I have chosen to focus primarily on the ‘Water Games’ installation because I feel that it has a lot of aspects similar to ours but also there are enough differences (both physically and the way that it was implemented) that will make comparing and contrasting a real learning experience.

Other work for comparison: Data Fountain.

The work that I have selected to compare our project against is the project that originated our idea – it is called the ‘Data Fountain’ and it can be found online via this link.

The Data Fountain team describes its project as,

This fountain is connected to money currency rates on the internet. It is realtime! Refreshed every five seconds. This mobile fountain measures 5×4x3 meters. The relation between money and water is evident. On our datafountain we display the Yen, Euro and Dollar (¥€$). Currency rates are closely interconnected; their interdependence is visible in water. The design of the casing was kept as minimal as possible. The water is the thing to look at and listen to.

I selected this particular piece of work because it realates directly to what we (as a group) are working on. Our work was directly inspired by this piece of work so it makes a great piece of work to do a comparison on. I think much can be gained by talking to the designers of this project and colaborating with them to produce a better project.

Other work for comparison: Water Wall.

The Water Wall is part of a larger project called ‘The Digital Mile’. The designing team describes the Water Wall as:

an interactive fountain where people can digitally control the streams of water. With a command – by jumping into the water or sending a message through an electronic device – the water can start and stop or change in pressure.

This work would be a great piece for comparison against / with our assignment because it so closely relates to what we’re trying to accomplish. Unfortunately the work is still very much in its conceptual stages so it doesn’t make good for a physical exhibit – but the ideas are there to be compared against.

More information can be found via these links – MIT School of Architecture + Planning, The Digital Mile and Interactive Architecture dot Org.

Other work for comparison: Fountaineers.

Again Fountaineers is interactive work being done with water fountains.

Fountaineers is engaging pupils and staff in a primary school as co-designers of an interactive and programmable water fountain. As people pass by, the intelligent fountain will respond to their behaviour in different ways using programs created by children. The fountain might respond to people’s speed and movement, be part of school performances or represent the opinions of pupils. In both its design and use, the fountain will enable children and adults to engage with, and learn from their environment; learn between lessons and across spaces; and take part in a range of collaborative learning experiences.

Again, unfortuantly the work is still ‘in progress’ and wont be ready any time soon. But none the less, it is there and the ideas are there to be compared with and against. Click this link to goto the project page.