Day #40 - Random International's "Rain Room" #Lent2016

ART + RELIGION
By Aaron Rosen

Random International, “Rain Room”, 2012; Water, injections moulded tiles, solenoid valves, pressure regulators, custom software, 3D tracking cameras, steel beams, water management system, and grated floor, 1,076 3/8 sq. feet. Installation view, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, 2012

The miraculous conceit of the Rain Room -- in which visitors can stroll through the pouring rain while remaining completely dry, as if surrounded by a protective force-field -- is the result of meticulous research, programming, and calibration. Cameras map the location of moving bodies in three dimensions, with information fed to a grid controlling water flow. Where many critics and philosophers have theorized distinct categories of the sublime, from natural to artistic to technological, in Rain Room all three converge. [page 84]

Lent is the annual Christian preparation for Easter. "Today's Art for Lent2016" features artworks that illustrate the Christian "Battle between Carnival and Lent."