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Here's A Virtual Bamboo Forest Made of Lasers And Electronic Sound

Bring your own breadcrumbs to navigate Prague-based interactive group CIANT's interactive installation of laser light and sound.

Images by Krištof Kalina

Organized in 1998, the Prague-based interactive group CIANT (International Centre for Art and New Technologies) is an international platform that produces information and communication technology-based artwork.

Their latest project, Laser Bamboo Forest, is an interactive installation of laser light and sound that recently appeared at Designblok 2014, Prague's design and fashion week. Fully developed by CIANT Interactive, the installation's control system uses 100 optically-controlled lasers equipped with lenses and response sensors, an operation unit for positioning, and software to control it all. It's a visual cousin to Marshmallow Laser Feast's Laser Forest, one that makes us imagine a future in which all the woods are glowing.

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“What we call laser bamboo forest is a dark room, where you enter laser stems shining from the ceiling to the ground,” CIANT explained on their website. “Each laser stem has a bit different volume and intensity, thus creating the magic of [a] bamboo forest in the dark. But, you can also touch each of the beams and break its stream.” When Designblok attendees crossed the beams with their hands and bodies, they triggered melodic loops of rhythmic patterns, harmonic echos, and street sounds. As more people entered the room and interacted with the laser beams, a great polyphonic swell of sounds and fragmented melodies crescendoed.

It all looks a bit like The Matrix's sheets of raining neon green data, but if it were a pure multimedia virtual reality experience instead of an absurdist martial arts extravaganza. Below, check out Laser Bamboo Forest in action:

Check out more of CIANT's work here.

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