Dezeen Magazine

The Burble by Usman Haque

This year's London Fashion Week will be inaugurated by the launch of the Burble - a giant airborne assembly of 1,000 helium balloons containing LEDs designed by Usman Haque.

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The Burble's first performance was in Singapore last year, where these photos were taken.

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Here is Haque's invitation to the September 16 launch at Holland Park in London:

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The Burble will rise again, this time in London...

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Please join me on Sunday September 16, 2007 at Holland Park, for the UK premiere of the Burble, whose launch into the sky will celebrate the start of London Fashion Week. Lift-off is at 8pm sharp, though we (a team of about 50 people) will be there all day setting up. Arrive early...

The Burble is a massive structure reaching up towards the sky, composed of approximately 1000 extra-large helium balloons each of which contains microcontrollers and LEDs that create spectacular patterns of light across the surface of the structure.

The public, both audience and performer, come together to control this immense rippling, glowing, bustling 'Burble' that sways in the evening sky, in response to movements of the long articulated interactive handle bar at the base of the structure.

The ephemeral experience exists at such a large scale that it is able to compete visually in an urban context with the buildings that surround it.

Many of Fashion Week's events are closed to the public, so the Burble has been commissioned by Moët & Chandon specially so that thousands of members of the public can engage with a "golden spectacle".