Interactive Clubbing Experience Jimmy Woo

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Shǒu shàn - interactive clubbing experience

A lighting installation that senses and reacts to the music and dancing in a club, which in turn triggers more dancing! Made to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of the Jimmy Woo club, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

OOOH Studio and V3RS design joined forces to create the new eye-gazing interactive light installation for Jimmy Woo in Amsterdam: A notorious and glorious club with a 15 year long heritage that is known for its already impressive light experience.

手扇 [ Shǒu shàn ]

… is the Chinese word for hand fan. Hand fans were traditionally used to extend body language in the art of seduction or to send secret messages. The way it was moved, held and folded, represented the persons’ circumstance. This object and movement was the perfect metaphor for the seductive Oriental-inspired interior of Jimmy Woo.

INTERACTIVE SCULPTURE

For this new light experience we were asked to encourage dancing in the newly renovated club space. To give guests an exciting club experience, which they had never felt before, we designed a grand interactive light sculpture inspired by traditional asian hand-fan’s. Beams of LED-light function as the fan’s constructive core and are surrounded by a composition of etched mirrors. This creates new sight-lines to the interior whilst adding to the overal eclectic oriental spirit of the club.

SENSING AND REACTING

We created a series of light interactions that observed the movements of guests through a grid of sensors which capture warmth, movement and sound. Using this data we generated a visually appealing motion of light that reacts to the captured activity on the dance floor. The interaction was inspired by the idea of the club’s mythical entity; ‘Jimmy Woo’ who watches over the club.

LAYERS

For the interior V3RS and OOOH have created a layered design. While the constructive core of the hand-fan is clear, the space in between the light fixtures is filled with the Rorschach-like composition of etched mirrors with an abstract pattern of fragments of the Terracotta Army. The Terracotta Army is a collection of life size sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife. In the installation it represents the traditional artwork that is hand painted on the fans and at the same time functions as a different layer in the installation which reflects the movement of the crowd.

THE RATIONALE

The result is a reflecting upwards cycle of movement in which the guest are the driving force behind the total club experience. An experience that goes beyond just mesmerizing guests.The project is a contemporary result of OOOH studio’s ongoing research in creating new interactive installations and products that transform technology into emotion and translate the digital into physical.