Kaleidoscopes are simple, yet extremely fascinating objects - ever tried making one with a toilet paper roll, some mirror sheets and a few beads? Try, look inside it and you will immediately get lost in a sea of colours and fractured geometries that repeat infinitely, expanding the illusion of looking into a brightly lit galaxy. London-based entertainment architects studio Stufish recently pushed things further by creating a giant kaleidoscope.
The immersive installation was designed for the One Giant Leap annual event that took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This event focuses on inspiring technology across all major sectors including health, finance, energy, education, digital entertainment, transport and smart cities.
At 40m long, 6m high and 3m wide, Stufish's kaleidoscope is the world's largest of its kind, designed with seamless and warp-less mirrors to achieve an ever-expanding environment.
For the event in Saudi Arabia it integrated LED screens tha projected images evoking the nature of the country, marine life and the stars on the Arabian Peninsula. The most difficult thing behind this installation was creating the 40m long seamless and warp-less mirror that had to reflect infinite images, and that was achieved by using a showtex mirror foil product. Two triangular entry and exit portals at either end ensured that the entry/exit design did not disrupt the seamless content reflected within the kaleidoscope.
In the case of Stufish's kaleidoscope, the trick was to magnify this simple technology and take it to extreme levels, but this technology can be scaled back to create a portable and wearable kaleidoscope.
Crochet works particularly well when you want to create kaleidoscope-like refractions on tops or dresses: Gabriela Hearst recently used this technique on the black, yellow and orange dresses included in her A/W 2022-23 collection, showcased during New York Fashion Week. The crochet motif on a sleeveless dress and a long-sleeve top with matching skirt was actually inspired by a peacock's tail feathers (actually when a peacock spreads its tail feathers the effect from a distance is similar to that of kaleidoscope...).
There is another point in common between this installation and this collection: the former is sustainable as it can be easily disassembled and mounted somewhere else; Hearst's collections are usually sustainable and ethical, made at times with recycled materials and in collaboration with skilled artisans (in the case of this collection the knitted chunky cashmere sweaters were made with botanical dyes).
If you want to get inspired by kaleidoscopes for a personal project, start by building your own one first - it will help your creative process and guarantee some wonderful DIY fun.
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