Piping hot: Interactive installation for oil company makes waves in Norway

Oslo – Breaking the Surface is a collaborative art installation between a collective of Norwegian design agencies that emulates an underwater world.

Agencies ctrl+n, Kontur,  Scandinavian Design Group, Abida, Intek and Pivot Product Design came together to create the kinetic sculpture commissioned by oil company Lundin Norway.

The structure is formed of a 23 x 23 grid of acrylic plastic tubes hanging from one level of an art gallery.  From below, visitors can walk under the pipes, which have sensors that react to movement, producing fluid and irregular waves like the sea. Visitors can also access the pipes from above, looking down on the structure to see its mechanics. 

The installation was informed by the client’s work. ‘The curves and fluidity of the shape represent the landscape of the sea bed, while the pipes represent the drilling pipes used by the client to access the sea bed,’ project architect Johnathon Lloyd Little of ctrl+n, tells LS:N Global. ‘Inside the tubes are oil droplets that hold actual samples of the oil found where Lundin Norway drills.’

Lloyd Little believes the strength of the piece comes from the interaction with the viewers. ‘As you move through you get a real sense that the waves are an extension of your own movement,’ he says. ‘It makes you feel involved and present.’

Breaking the Surface is an example of our Kinetic Nature Design Direction, in which design draws inspiration from the poetic properties of nature.