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2023 Burning Man Arts
One of the highlighted projects merging technology with the beauty and craftsmanship of fine arts, the Living Knitwork Pavilion recently received the Black Rock City Honoraria Grant from the Burning Man Organization.
"Once upon a time, in the heart of the Black Rock City desert, a knitted shade structure seamlessly melded ancient and contemporary designs and wisdoms. As the sun traversed the sky and the winds swept through, it swayed and danced in a symphony of life and living, as patterns, colors, and shadows began to reveal stories and spark imaginations. Its dynamic ambiance played with surrounding lights, presence, and movements — creating an immersive journey into a world of wonder, where art and engineering were fused to create an experience that transcended space and time."
The Living Knitwork Pavilion is a customized and modular textile shade structure (dodecagonal pyramid: 19ft high and 26ft wide) consisting of 3D-knitted optically and electrically-active yarns that sense activities and dynamically change color and light up through the day and night. The functional yarns, intricately embedded within the twelve petals of the knitwork are able to detect physical interactions through an array of electric-field and resistive-based proxemic, touch, and strain sensors and drive an immersive lighting network in real-time.
During sunny days, hidden patterns of humans, nature, flora-fauna, and synthetic beings inspired by our history and the future worlds are revealed through photochromism. The pavilion, working as a shade structure by day and responsive lantern by night, serves as a communal place. Our presence, movements, and environmental changes constantly contribute toward the entire glow, visual effects, and ambiance of the space, as they are reprojected onto the pavilion as living memories, fostering and amplifying moments of discovery, reflection, and connectedness.