Random International: Rain Room, The Barbican, 04 October 2012- 03 March 2013

Rain Room is an experiential and interactive installation piece, a 100 square metre field of falling water for visitors to walk through and experience how it might feel to control the rain, exploring the idea of trust and disbelief in something so unimaginable. Being the biggest and most ambitious installation The Barbican has exhibited to date, the two hour queue to see this marvel was well worth the wait. Sensors within the room allowed the rain to react to sound and movement, and being able to walk under water droplets and stay completely dry whilst being surrounded with falling water was a magical experience, almost like an invisible umbrella. Playing and fighting against the forces of nature was a strange feeling and one that is definitely recommendable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 ‘Random International combines aesthetic purity and technical sophistication to create works, often hard won, that explore materiality and immateriality, the animate and inanimate alike. New technologies form the basis of their work which nonetheless draws on op art, kinetics and post-minimalism. Cross-disciplinary collaborations are enthusiastically embraced by the studios. 
In Rain Room, Random International invites you to experience what it’s like to control the rain and put your trust in the work to the test. More than the technical virtuosity necessary for its success, the piece relies on a sculptural rigour, with the entire Curve transformed by the monumental proportions of this carefully choreographed downpour and the sound of water. Rain Room encapsulates Random International’s ethos of experimentation with human behaviour an interactive processes. It also invites us to explore what role science, technology and human ingenuity might play in stabilising our environment… The significance of the technology melts away and becomes invisible, foregrounding instead the participant and their personal journey within the piece.’