“Rain Room.” random-international.com. Random International, 2012. Web. 03 July 2014. http://random-international.com/work/rainroom/
Rain Room is an art installation that allows viewers to walk through rain without getting wet. Upon entering the Rain Room, participants are encouraged to walk through sheets of falling water while 3D cameras track their movements and positions within the Rain Room. Sensors then disable the falling water from touching the participants moving in the Rain Room, creating an effect of being in rain while not being able to touch actual water. I relate this installation to the idea of object oriented ontology and the notion of objects simultaneously being both transmitters and receivers of information. When a person moves within the Rain Room, this triggers sensors that cut off the water supply to a given area. Although the person doesn’t feel water on their skin, they’re still immersed in the experience of being in rain. This installation is almost the opposite of Intimate Transactions in that the person participating controls where the sensors are disabled just by moving into a given space (the person is the center of the experience.) I also relate the idea of being in a simulated natural environment with the idea of Actor Network Theory because of how majority of people react while in the Rain Room. While being in this simulated natural environment, it promotes movement and encourages people to move around and challenge the Rain Room’s ability to avoid getting people wet. I think this art piece shows the ideas behind OOO and ANT and the notion of objects working with one another in a given space.
