The Burble is a massive structure reaching up towards the sky, composed of approximately 1000 extra-large helium balloons each of which contains microcontrollers and LEDs that create spectacular patterns of light across the surface of the structure.

Burble London, open to the public to celebrate London Fashion Week, will lift-off at 8pm sharp on Sunday September 16, 2007 at Holland Park, London.

The Burble, soaring upwards like a plume of smoke, is constructed from a set of 140 modular and configurable carbon-fibre units approx. 2m in diameter. Each unit is supported by 7 extra-large helium balloons (for a total of about 1000 individual pixels) which contain sensors, LEDs and microcontrollers, enabling balloons and units to co-ordinate and create patterns of colour that ripple up towards the sky.

Just as the participants are the composers of the Burble’s tall form, so too are they the ones to control it. They hold on to it using handles with which they may position the Burble as they like. They may curve in on themselves, or pull it in a straight line – the form is a combination of the crowd’s desires and the impact of wind currents varying throughout the height of the Burble.

The Burble moves, rustles, tangles, folds in on itself and creates turbulence as the wind catches it like a sail. Suddenly, the entire construction ignites with colour, sparkling in the evening sky.

As people on the ground shake and pump the handle bars of the Burble, they see their movements echoed as colours through the entire system. They see their own individual fragments, perhaps even identifying design choices they have made. Their invididual contributions become an integral part of a spectacular, ephemeral experience many times their size that they have come together to produce.

Part installation, part performance — for the design and assembly by the public is as much a part of the project as the actual flying is — the Burble enables people to contribute at an urban scale to a structure that occupies their city, albeit for only one night.

More images are available here.

Video documentation, Quicktime: 8 mins, 320×240, 16 Mb file

Video documentation extract, Quicktime: 30 secs,640×480, 4 Mb file

http://www.haque.co.uk/