Finding Inspiration Outside (While Trapped Inside)

As I am spending more and more time inside due to the COVID pandemic, my computer has become even more of a "window to the world" pointing me toward creative work outdoors around the world.

I hope you find inspiration in the works highlighted below.

Monstrum

Why play in a playhouse, if you can play in moon rockets, submarines, giant snail shells, clown heads, or Trojan horses? That's the question that motivates Monstrum, a group of designers and craftspeople creating unique playgrounds from their workshop in Copenhagen.  Click on over to the Monstrum website to see more images of their playful and beautiful work.

WindowSwap

Instead of staring out of your own window, click on over to the WindowSwap website to see views outside the windows of people from around the world. 

Your Rainbow Panorama

Here's a bit of museum/exhibit/design inspiration that evokes light, and the sun, and endless horizons: artist Olafur Eliasson's architectural installation entitled  "Your rainbow panorama."

Situated on top of the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum art museum in Aarhus, Denmark, Your rainbow panorama invites you to experience the familiar (a city skyline) in unfamiliar ways. Olafur Eliasson's creation consists of a 150-meter-long and three meter-wide circular walkway in glass in all the colors of the spectrum. 

One Day Poem Pavilion

Artist Jiyeon Song has created a sculptural structure that utilizes perforations carefully arranged throughout the top surfaces.  As light shines through the Pavilion's holes at different angles, legible text is created on the sidewalk underneath.  Different lines from a poem appear at different times of the day, due to the position of the sun.  What is super cool is that (again, due to the sun's position) one poem appears during the summer, and a different poem appears in the winter.

Miguel Marquez Outside

Michael Pederson is a street artist and photographer in Sydney, Australia. His blog Miguel Marquez Outside shows, among other projects, signs that Pederson has placed in public. They look official and offer rules, suggestions, and information about the area.

Many of Pederson's signs twist the traditional notion of informational signs (like those found in museums!)  I wonder how we could play with visitors' expectations in outdoor exhibits by using ideas like this?

Wind Map

Wind Map gives a real-time visualization of wind speeds in the U.S. It's like a giant video infographic! A more three-dimensional view of wind around the entire globe is available at the earth website. 

Of course, even during COVID times, the most refreshing and inspirational thing to do right now might be a short stroll around your neighborhood. So why not take a break from your computer and take a walk outside?

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Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!

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