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A 2023 interactive art project involving two Maine artists, Cynthia Thompson, owner of Transformit in Gorham, and James LaPlante, Sputnik Animation, South Portland, led to another. The 2024 installation was inspired by quantum physics concepts and explored through giant lotus flowers.
“I realized that we could deconstruct several of our [Dazzle] rental flowers,” explains Thompson in her entry into the International Achievement Awards, “which allowed us to imagine two large lotus flowers, exact mirrors of one another, whose 25 petals—50 total—would make perfect individual screens for video mapping. Imagining the petals arranged to encircle one visitor in each flower, we set about creating an interactive and immersive projected wonderland.”
Here’s how it worked: A visitor stood in the middle of one of the sculptures. The person’s movement generated music and art that was shown in their flower. That creation got “entangled” and reflected in the other artwork—and vice versa. Each flower showed its own art as well as the reflection of the other lotus, blending them to create a unique display in each.
Each flower was about 20 feet in diameter and 12 feet tall. The installation was open for visitors at the Immersive Media Studio at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, during the spring of 2024.
Project name: Quantum Lotus
Location: Bates College’s Immersive Media Studio, Lewiston, Maine
Design: James LaPlante, Sputnik Animation
Project management: Cynthia Thompson, Transformit
Fabrication: Connor Pirrucello-McClellan, Transformit
Installation: Connor Pirrucello-McClellan, Cynthia Thompson, Transformit
Music: Emily Hopkins
Fabric: GF 5019 Symmetry Plus (FR) by Fisher Textiles
Images: Transformit