Word Wall!
I recently got a grant from Ignition Northwest to help me put together a project I’ve had in my head for a few years. I’m calling it the Word Wall.
The Word Wall is an aluminum wall on a stand with a highly technical and smooth finished character. Words are cut into the surface which can be lit from within and can be pressed to interact with the wall. It’s a little over 6′ x 6′.
(viewing and pressing words full scale on my computer display)
When no one is within range of the wall, the various words embedded in the metal surface pulse mostly randomly. Sometimes meaning can be put to the sequence of random words.
When within range of the wall, you are beckoned to interact: “start, start, start”. But you don’t know what kind of interaction you will get with each visit.
One possible interaction of the many possible: Any words pressed are sequenced and looped in time on the wall. If you press the words “here”, “i”, “am”, the wall will then play back those words in both audio and lighting of the words, and after a pause, this loop continues until the participant presses something different, or walks away.
The grant is from Ignition Northwest, a NW organization coming out of the Burning Man networks in town. They throw a yearly mini Burning Man called Critical Massive, and fund a fair number of projects. They gave out over $10,000 this year and I was fortunate to be involved.
(viewing and pressing words full scale on my computer display)