stratus

For this semester's project, „stratus“ takes an experimental approach to artificially recreate the natural phenomenon of mist, water droplets suspended in air - a phenomenon we commonly recognise as fog or in the form of clouds.

In an interplay of water and light, a clever installation allows mist to be experienced in a different environment. The tiny water droplets reflect light and act as a diffuser or ‘resonating body’ in motion for a concealed light source. Set against a contrasting dark background, the mist is rendered visible and its fascination for the viewer is amplified. What is typically a very temporary and transient weather condition is presented here as a continuous stream, a laminar flow. This fog or mist has been ‘tamed’, and in this controlled, cylindrical form, it becomes a tangible phenomenon that is easier to grasp - literally. Witnessing this installation has an emotional effect on the user, inciting childlike curiosity and prompting them to grab at the water mist, putting their hand in the hazy stream and interrupting its flow.

Mist consists of water - a liquid - but takes the form of droplets so tiny suspended in air, that it almost behaves like a gas. In Stratus, mist is presented in a deliberately condensed form that we find unfamiliar: it appears stronger and as if it has a will of its own. This challenges the viewer’s expectations, as we naturally expect fine mist to disperse according to the laws of physics, but this mist stream bounces back with almost magnetic determination, to follow a specified direction.

Video-Link:

https://tube.kh-berlin.de/videos/embed/w/jEeTjCG3Juq7FmrMyarm3V

first ideas & thoughts

testing

To explore how mist behaves and how we can potentially change its form and way of flowing we tried out different setups with three constants but in different combinations, distances and positions.

These three constants were different kind of tubes, fans and the core of the set-up, the atomizer, with which the spray mist is generated.

This happened in a rather small scale but we also tried it with a smoke machine and a vacuum cleaner to see how and if we could work with that. In the end, we decided on the smaller scale because of the quality of the mist.

Video-Link:

https://tube.kh-berlin.de/w/nvadyEN5sP787rn4Z55LHQ

testing trials with smoke machine

prototyping

The atomizer, which is the key part in this project, needs to be constantly in touch with water to produce mist. Because of this, a special construction around it was needed to fulfill this need and also to create a general skin for it for better and stable tests.

So we took a deep dive in 3D printing and tried to built different kind of forms for the atomizer as well for the fan, to generate different possible outcomes.