Of all the things we’ve seen helium balloons used for, drawing is a new one. If you’ve never seen a balloon draw (and you haven’t), check this out.
It looks like an old underwater mine from WW2, but it floats in air instead of water and its purpose is to create, not destroy.
Debuting at the Electronic Language International Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Karina Smigla-Bobinski’s “ADA” installation became one of the most popular exhibits in the month-long festival for robotics and technology.
ADA is a giant, transparent PVC balloon studded with dozens of large charcoal crayons. It suspends perfectly in the air thanks to the extremely precise amount of helium inside— enough helium to keep it floating above the ground, but not so much that it rises to the ceiling.
ADA floats and moves around seemingly autonomously inside of an empty, all-white room, but visitors were encouraged to step inside and give the balloon a push as well. The smallest nudge is all the energy needed to put ADA to work.
As the helium balloon spins, bumps, and drags along the room, the charcoal sticks affixed to ADA’s exterior mark up the walls.
What starts off looking like the random graffiti of a misbehaving child eventually accumulates into a specific design, until the empty room becomes the artwork itself.
Source: smigla-bobinski.com