Indigenous peoples in the Arctic create Igloos as shelters, made with the natural material of ice and in the form of a sphere which corresponds to familiar forms in the natural world — the shape of the moon, the curvature of the earth.
The curved form of the Igloo corresponds to the curves of the body creating an enclosure that implies a continuity with nature.
In one story an Inuit man was moved from an Igloo into a square home. This shape was very foreign, both as a form and as a cultural phenomena. He was not able to adapt to this radical shift.
This installation encompasses the viewer in the natural form of a dome, contrasted with the small house forms inside. Creating an experience of being inside of natural forms.
Viewers experience the geometry of bubbles and the dynamic color on the membrane of the bubble surfaces &emdash; like being inside of a bubble.
In contrast, one bubble expanding and decaying is projected on the small velum houses inside. Creating these houses with velum accentuates their precariousness.
This video of one bubble was created at Argonne National Laboratory using the Advanced Photon Source. Mark Rivers was the scientist who created this video of one bubble.