Gizmodo
Commissioned for the atrium of the brand spanking new Terminal 5 at Heathrow, Cloud is a digital sculpture conceived by art and design studio Troika. The five-meter structure is suspended above the escalators and consists of three layers. Find out what lies beneath the black and silver flick-dots, and see the sculpture in action below the gallery.
On top of an aluminum body sit 4,638 dots that can turn from silver to black in one quick flick. Beneath that lies two electronic drivers, 134 distribution boards and over 16,500 feet of cable. Controlling the flip-dots was harder than normal, however, and Pharos Architectural Controls, a company which develops electronic controllers for lighting applications, had to fiddle around with the control parameters and rewrite firmware on the drivers.
I like the flicka-flicka noise as the Cloud changes color—It reminds me of the old-skool arrivals and departures boards in airports before everything went TV monitor-tastic. Terminal 5 opens on March 27 of this year, and if you're flying into London via BA, don't forget to look up as you hit the down escalator. [YouTube and Troika]
Comments
that thing is huge when put into perspective, and won't look like crap compared to the LED/bulb ones that slowly burn out one by one
All it needs are some random lightning strikes....
Yay for old school (mechanical displays)
cool.
I will never understand the English fascination with chrome-plated turds.
It's like DLP, only not.
@discounteggroll:
Not so fast. Once one of those mirrored tiles decides to get stuck it'll be like every other art deco monster POS in every other airport in the world.
@monkeyrotica: please provide another example of the English being fascinated by chrome-plated turds. I cannot imagine what sort of evidence you have to support your position.
@rususeruru and discounteggroll: I agree. I love the fact that it is not just blinking lights (sorry E).
Beautiful. I love when Giz features stories about art merged with technology.
Looks like a misshapened photon torpedo.
Looks more like a silver turd if you ask me.
Seems to have a relaxing effect on me.
It's like a disco ball took a few tabs of good ol' lsd.
@monkeyrotica: American's are in to chrome-plated turds, not the British. Just look at Harley Davidsons (not to mention all the ugly chrome wheels on cars here)!
@Noobs-R-Us: Wow. Mad props for finding the Trek reference in that. LOL
So coo... wouldn't be shocked if it had recogabilities... as I descend the escalator ..."HI ANOEL HAVE A NICE FLIGHT TO STATION 3 MARS"
@zenpoet: There's this:
[www.millenniumpark.org]
done by a British artist.
Guaranteed to make me look up in awe, and fall down the escalator.
Turd or not, it is very cool.
@seanr1978: Well how about this then...It looks like a photon torpedo going through a tear in the space-time continuum.
@Gann: game, set, match! It would appear that he DID know what he was talking about.
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