The Hothouse Laboratory, part of Summer at Watershed
More details: https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/13482/the-hothouse-laboratory
Undershed, Bristol’s immersive art gallery from Watershed, is delighted to announce its summer exhibition, The Hothouse Laboratory, which will run from Thursday 7 August – Monday 1 September. Award-winning, Bristol-based creative studio Air Giants will transform the space into a magical, interactive garden inhabited by 2-metre-tall inflatable plant sculptures, brought to life through pioneering soft robotic technology.
Seemingly abandoned in a deserted laboratory, the huge, brightly coloured plants come alive when touched. Visitors are invited to explore the origins of these otherworldly creations as they flex, wiggle and glow, playfully inviting further investigation. Designed to provoke instinctive reactions and emotions from everyone that meets them, The Hothouse Laboratory takes robots out of the lab to encourage interaction and hands-on exploration, sparking joy and curiosity in audiences of all ages.
Air Giants is the first studio in the world to make interactive soft robotics at this scale, combining cutting-edge approaches with traditional hand-crafting techniques. Using their signature tools – light, sound, movement and air – they specialise in bringing creatures of the imagination into the everyday, creating playful immersive experiences and inspiring tactile environments.
This new installation will, for the first time, be accompanied by bespoke sound and light art from Chu-Li Shewring, a filmmaker, sound designer and sound artist, and Harriet Wallis, an architectural lighting designer who experiments with natural materials, in this unique presentation co-created by Air Giants and Undershed.
