BUBBLEMILL

By Ashley Li / Mar 2020 / Phenomena / No Comments
I chose to put my installation into the Pier 64 in Hudson River Park in New York City. The place I chose has the strongest wind on the whole site which we could see in the wind rose diagram. Most of the wind is from the west side to the east side. And also this place has a great thickness of the ground, which my installation will need. According to the diagram on the left side, I marked the journey diagram for my visitors. It shows my visitors can easily get to my installation and enjoy it.
I was inspired by Bubblebou. It is a bubble show in PortAventura Park in Spain. My installation is for everyone, no matter the age. But the biggest age group will be the children. In the activity time diagram, we can see that children will always come during the after school time with their grandparents. Adults usually will come during lunchtime or after work.
I used the iron ring which is twined by the rope to do this bubble experiment. I put the ring into the bath tube which was filled in with the soap water and then rotated it. It created a large-scale bubble in the ring. After that, I learned about the principle of the gear, which says that if use different size gears, I can slow down the speed of rotation of the installation. Finally, I combined these two experiments to design my installation. The diagram on the left side shows how my installation will work. The wind will push the windmill on the top and make it rotate. And the windmill on the top is connecting with all the gears. So when the windmill rotates, all the gears will rotate at the same time. I used different angled gear to change the direction of the gear rotating. And the different sizes of gear can slow down my whole installation rotates.
There are five platforms in my installation for people to walk in and play with. When people stand on the platform, they can see the large-scale bubble being created around them. And there is a small machine on the top which is connecting with the windmill. When the windmill rotates, this machine will rotate with it, to create the small bubbles on the top to create a playful atmosphere around the installation. 
For my material, I chose to use black iron for my support. And the ring is twined by the yarn for creating the bubble easily. Under the ground, there will be a bowl-shape container which is made of stainless steel for reserving soap water.