Faculty Wins Minneapolis Creative City Challenge
Director and Associate Professor Bradley Cantrell working with Invivia + urbainDRC won the Minneapolis Creative City Challenge with their proposal: The Minneapolis Interavtive Macro Mood Installation (MIMMI). The Creative City Challenge is an annual two-stage competition for Minnesota architects, landscape architects, urban designers, engineers, scientists, artists, students and individuals of all backgrounds to create and install a temporary, interactive, site-specific, eco-focused ‘portal’ to the City of Minneapolis on the Plaza of the Minneapolis Convention Center beginning summer 2013.
MIMMI is an emotional gateway to Minneapolis bringing residents and visitors together to experience and participate in the collective mood of the city. In an age when we can be instantaneously connected with one another virtually, while simultaneously distanced from those closest to us physically, MIMMI seeks to challenge this paradox and unify the virtual and physical layers of our community by using technology to visualize the city’s collective moods in a new way, while also reinforcing serendipitous gatherings under the installation. MIMMI is a large ‘cloud like’ inflatable balloon suspended from a slender structure hovering 35 feet above the ground and visible from blocks around the Minneapolis Convention Center. It collects and reflects the aggregate mood of Minneapolis, through abstracted colorful light displays and climatic behavior depending on residents’ emotions. Whether the city is elated following a Twins win or frustrated
from the afternoon commute, MIMMI reflects these fluctuations. Everyone can enjoy MIMMI’s company and both watch and participate in her changing behavior while enjoying the city and connecting with new places and people!
The project will be installed in the Summer of 2013 and will last for 3 months.