Final reflective post
My urban design project went up last weekend. It was sitting in a 2.4 x 1.4 meter hole in the roof of the shop Handsomepretty inside the Londsale Street Traders shopping precinct.
As customers came into the shop they would notice the sphere moving slowly. There was a print out at the front of the shop with a run down of the project and letting them know that if they take a photo on Instagram near the sphere it will make it move faster and talking about the idea behind making the invisible digital infrastructure of urban environments visible. People seemed very positive and supportive of the project and a number of people installed the Instagram app just to interact with the sphere.
It was a little bit disappointing that the dome I made I wasn't able to use because there was no way to safely hang the dome inside the space. If it was a full sphere it would have had the hanging load spread evenly across the structure of the sphere but as one a dome there was no good point to hang from. Because of this it would have needed to be strung along horizontal struts or cable which turned out to put a lot of pressure on the side joints and made moving the sphere difficult and potentially dangerous. I pursued as many ways of mounting it as I could think of, using a large wooden frame built around the hole in the ceiling, but was not able to solve the problems.
Fortunately I had pre-ordered an off the shelf Hoberman sphere just in case something like this happened. Using the full sphere meant I could use my original hanging and movement system I had designed which is much simpler, stronger and much less obtrusive. The hanging system is a single loop of strong fishing line attached at specific points on the sphere. The loop also had a stepped belt at the opposite end to the sphere (made of kevlar, so more than strong enough). To move the sphere open and closed the stepped belt was wrapped around a gear, as the gear turns it pulls on one side of the loop and lets slack out on the other, this means the sphere stays hanging in the same place while it expands and contracts.
The system was set up to only take into account Instagram photos that were taken in the last 5 minutes so that the changes in speed would be noticeable and so that a viewer could tell how active Instagram was in the area in the very recent past.
I some of the customers as they were leaving the shop to gauge there reactions to the project and specifically to see whether they had understood what was going on, which is something I was concerned about. I also spoke to the sales assistants to find out what customers had said. Fortunately everyone we spoke to had a good idea of what the project was about, either by reading the printout or asking questions. All of the feedback I received was positive and many people wanted the project to stay around for longer.
Overall I'm extremely pleased with how this project has been realised, although there have been a almost overwhelming number of hurdles and problems throughout the project I feel I have learned a great deal during the semester. I am proud of what I have achieved and am glad I chose to attempt an ambitious project.