Work Analyzed: Rain Room by Hannes Koch and Florian Ortkrass
About the Work: Rain Room is an immersive installation project revolving around falling water in a room that stops upon detection of a human body. It essentially provides humans a sense of control on nature as rain falls around them rather than on them at every point of the installation. This work has toured around the world and brought this immersive experience to many around the world. It has brought to them an experience of digital interpretation of controlling nature.
Reflection of Experience
For the experience, it has two connections to the course being the manipulation of reality as well as the distancing of the individual from nature. Firstly, the project engages with the manipulation of reality in the sense that one doesn’t sense what they see and hear. For instance, while we normally feel rain falling on us and can hear it when we stand in the rain, this manipulates the experience of reality when we can hear and see but not feel. This would then boost an immersion of the experience of reality through the distancing of the feeling of reality. It is similar to the experience of eating without light or eating in the dark where the disabling of one or more senses can influence and make the focus of other senses more stronger for an immersive experience.
In addition, the distancing of the individual from nature creates a divide between reality and the fake. This sort of distancing is something that occurs to the real that we understand in rain, but the lack of experience of rain would create a psychological impact of distance. This then promotes an understanding of our reality as something distant from nature through the fabrication of the experience. Moreover, as this experience takes place in a closed setting, it allows for a closed experience of reality. It defines the boundaries of reality and breaks the laws of nature of reality to create this feeling of unrealness in the midst of reality.
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