HVAC REVAMP

Collaboration with Ben Dalton, Noah Fields, and Amber Frid-Jimenez
Cambridge MA, 2005

HVAC REVAMP was an art installation that used an HVAC outlet vent to power a bubble generator. The simple machine, which we designed, fabricated, and installed at MIT over a course of one week, engaged unseen elements to explore how modern architectural structures affected air quality and wind currents on campus. A soap bubble, which calls to mind the simple, inquisitive play of childhood, also contains within it an image of the diverse research conducted at MIT, from surface tension to social interaction. The installation transformed a public circulation space on the MIT campus with clouds of soap bubbles that were released by the exhalations of the building, unlocking a world of unseen vectors through which we pass daily. Our intent was to create a site-specific sculpture which sparked intrigue and invoked the sense of shared participation in a social event. The project was funded by an MIT Council for the Arts grant in 2005.