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Space Replay, an Eerie Space Manipulating Device

March 10, 2014 by Fosco Lucarelli 1 Comment

Space replay project - black balloon in metro station

Space replay is a project designed by Francesco Tacchini, Julinka Ebhardt and Will Yates-Johnson of the London’s Royal College of Art. As the title implies, this device is a floating black sphere which records and replays ambient sounds after a short delay.

The ultralight balloon is equipped with an Arduino controller with an hacked Adafruit Wave shield and a small speaker to enhance the volume.

Space replay project - black balloon

Whereas the designers’ intention was to produce “a delayed echo of human activity” in public spaces, many websites have acknowledged the disturbing nature of an object that, in addition to manipulate space by its acoustic intervention, seems to stalk and menace people.

In the video below, the eerie presence of the sphere slowly but steadily moving through a subway station, in an elevator and in other transitional areas, reminds that of an entity appearing since 1967 in the classic British television program The Prisoner. There, a floating white ball, called The Rover, was able to coerce or even kill people, namely the inhabitants of the Village. Since the device only appeared in one episode (“The Schizoid Man”), but was evoked many times throughout the script, it could be considered a reference and inspiration for similar scary entities in popular culture, such as the “Smoke Monster” in the “Lost” saga.

In both cases no special effects were needed to convey a Magritte-like sense of threat by pure forms – the spheres – with no intrinsical menacing qualities.

Space replay project - black balloon stairs

Space replay project - black balloon metro station

Space replay project - black balloon elevator

 

Via: io9.com

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Comments

  1. Dr Ian C Baillie says

    March 10, 2014 at 8:10 pm

    Hi
    Just to say how much I admire the concept and results on display here. I specialise in quantum physics and consciousness. I’m continually amazed at how unaware humans are of their surroundings especially when an anomaly is present. Most try to ignore the anomaly or carry on with their mundane tasks. This can be extrapolated to ET events, UFOs etc. A dolphin would I think be inherently curious and wish to explore this new “playmate?”
    Best wishes
    Ian

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