Dezeen Magazine

Numen/For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable String Prototype installation

Visitors could suspend themselves within a 3D grid of ropes inside this inflatable installation created by Croatian-Austrian design collective Numen/For Use (+ slideshow).

Numen For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable installation

Named String Prototype, Numen/For Use's installation consisted of an inflatable white cube filled with thin ropes that were tied up on opposite sides of the space.

Numen For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable installation

When the cube was deflated the ropes loosened, allowing the installation to decompress. When inflated, the ropes tightened into a grid strong enough to hold the weight of a person.

Numen For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable installation

Ropes like this are regularly used to help large inflatables keep their shape but are usually hidden from the public, whereas the String Prototype let people climb around inside.

Numen For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable installation

"Bodies entrapped in a 3D grid fly in unnatural positions throughout a superficial white space, resembling Dadaist collages," said the designers.

Numen For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable installation

"This creates the impossibility of perception of scale and direction, and results in a simultaneous feeling of immenseness and absence of space," they added.

Numen For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable installation

A test was carried out near Vienna at the end of December, but the project is still in development.

Numen For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable installation

Numen/For Use was established in the 1998 but since 2008 has increasingly focused on concepts without a predefined function and experimental works.

Numen For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable installation

They are best known for their Tape Installations, which use several kilometres of transparent sticky tape to create cocoons between the pillars of a host building or scaffolding.

Numen For Use creates 3D grid of ropes inside inflatable installation