Interactive Research Environment of Far From Equilibrium: Curiosity, Creativity, Uncertainty at Links Hall
Interactive Research Environment Designed By: Megan Rhyme, Elizabeth Hicks, Roger Zare, Steve Tarzia, Brandon Waybright, Andy Hudson, David Sopchik, Mary Wu, Nick Marchuk
Dancers: Chrissy Martin, Gretchen Soechting, Sara Nelson, Monica Carrow, Eve Chalom, megan amal, Stephanie Anderson, Jessica Morales
Musicians: Andy Hudson, Brady Richards, Manuel Ramos, Conner Ray
Lighting Design: Jacob Snodgrass
Video: Steve Tarzia
Video of the Interactive Research Environment at Far From Equilibrium: Curiosity, Creativity, Uncertainty at Links Hall, June 2016.
Far From Equilibrium: Curiosity, Creativity, Uncertainty was an expansion of Far From Equilibrium, the 2015 collaboration between Megan and scientist Elizabeth Hicks. The 2016 expansion was an evening-length event that included a dance and music performance as well as an interactive audience element. It was presented at Links Hall in June 2016 and then again at 12th Street Beach in downtown Chicago in July 2016 as part of the Chicago Park District's Night Out In The Parks series.
Megan and Physicist Elizabeth Hicks continued and further developed the dance from 2015, which explored the physics behind turbulence - a chaotic stretching and mixing of fluid - through the motion of the dancer's bodies. They also worked with composer Roger Zare, who composed a live clarinet quartet to accompany the dance, based on the same themes of turbulence.
After the dance and music performance, Far From Equilibrium continued with an interactive audience element, created by a collaborative team of artists and designers, called the Interactive Research Environment. Designed to allow audience members to have their own process of inquiry and curiosity, this research playground contained experiments and exhibits that blurred the line between science and art. Stations included a wind tunnel, a Schlerin optics turbulence visualizer, a buoyancy experiment, chaotic double pendulums, an oobleck experiment, fluid dynamics painting, vortex ring makers, the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability tube, interactive dance, interactive composition, mica powder water, a plate of salt, and a water gong.