If you’re like me, then you’re always wondering what it would be like to bounce a ball through space. Wonder no longer, intrepid reader, as we show you this beautiful see-saw currently set up in Melbourne’s Federation Square that lets players bounce light back and forth like you’re on another world.
A Tilt Of Light is the latest project from Melbourne art and design studio, Eness.
The studio was set up in 1997 by two guys: Nimrod, a designer, and Steve, a programmer. They’ve built their own software that manages light projection and physics puzzles, and they build all their own hardware for various installations.
Nimrod said that Eness — which now has six staff — love to explore what lies at the intersection of art, technology and culture and how that can all be represented in the physical world.
A few years ago, for example, Eness did an awesome experiment as a tie in with the premiere of Tron: Legacy, creating a half-pipe for skateboarders that tracked them as they rolled along, calculating their airtime and projecting all of it onto the surface of the ramps along with some great looking images.
For their latest project, the folks at Eness wanted to play around with physics:
Climb on and watch how a pingpong ball might bounce on the moon, or how a balloon might wade through yogurt. Choose the atmosphere surrounding your object- air, water, space and even yogurt and observe the ball of light as it hurls your way. Our seesaw is equipped with a physics engine and thirty three rows of light that respond to your tilt whilst you saw through the air.
It’s on until 1 July in Melbourne’s Federation Square, so get down there and get bouncing before it’s gone. From watching the video, looks like the most fun you can have with physics that doesn’t require a Portal gun.