Rocking Church is a 3-meter-tall kinetic artwork; a scale replica of the Ulm minster is mounted on two rockers which allow the church body to swing forwards and backwards. With the help of a hidden electric motor, an internally mounted weight can let the church rock by itself. Driven by sensors, the church can react on its own motion and even let an internal bell ring.
While no fixed meaning is attached to the work itself, it very much reflects current uncertainties and acts as a starting point for conversations and contextualisation; one of which took form as a series of two public performance by one of Sweden's most renown choreographers, Cristina Caprioli (CCAP).
The whole assembly is driven by an internal RaspberryPi, which is wired up to an accelerometer, an electric motor and a speaker system, all within the church's wooden body. One python script is programmatically controlling the rocking movement, while a second one is reactively monitoring the current tilt and dispatching events, e.g. to play a specific sound.
Role: Creative Technologist ● Work: Concept development, initiating collaboration with Cristina Caprioli/CCAP, visualisation, sensor based software solution ● Photos: Tim Meier