Architecture

World's biggest walk-through kaleidoscope delivers psychedelic visuals

World's biggest walk-through kaleidoscope delivers psychedelic visuals
Triangular exit and entry portals maintain the illusion
Triangular exit and entry portals maintain the illusion
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Triangular exit and entry portals maintain the illusion
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Triangular exit and entry portals maintain the illusion
LED visuals line the walls, reflecting into a 40 metre long psychedelic tunnel
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LED visuals line the walls, reflecting into a 40 metre long psychedelic tunnel
Stufish has designed and executed the world's largest walk-through kaleidoscope
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Stufish has designed and executed the world's largest walk-through kaleidoscope
The 40-meter-long tunnel is awash with psychedelic imagery
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The 40-meter-long tunnel is awash with psychedelic imagery
LED panels on the floor and walls are reflected by seamless mirrors
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LED panels on the floor and walls are reflected by seamless mirrors
The effect is extraordinary
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The effect is extraordinary
The visuals are inspired by, and sometimes built from, elements of the Arabian environment
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The visuals are inspired by, and sometimes built from, elements of the Arabian environment
View gallery - 7 images

London company Stufish laid out a spectacularly trippy experience for visitors to this year's One Giant Leap technology conference in Saudi Arabia, in which visitors could walk through a colossal kaleidoscope tunnel, surrounded by wild LED visuals.

The 40-m (131-ft) tunnel measured 6 m (19.7 ft) tall and 3 m (9.8 ft) wide, although its clever use of seamless, warpless mirrors makes the space look cylindrical as huge LED panels under the floor and in the wall tiles push out a series of slowly expanding, wildly psychedelic geometric designs, interspersed with visuals from a range of different environments "from the bottom of the sea to the sky and stars."

Its size doesn't win it the "world's largest kaleidoscope" title outright – a converted silo in New York State has a larger diameter, and another exhibition piece built for the 2005 Aichi Expo in Japan featured a tube 47 m (154 ft) long. Both of these, however, were vertically oriented. The Stufish design is the biggest kaleidoscope ever built for people to actually walk through.

The effect is extraordinary
The effect is extraordinary

Stufish says designing a 40-m-long mirror without any seams or warping wasn't the only challenge – to maintain the illusion of infinite space, the team had to design triangular entry and exit portals at either end that wouldn't disrupt the reflections.

Unfortunately the conference has wrapped up so you won't be able to walk through the kaleidoscope tunnel yourself, but you can check out the effect in the video below.

LEAP

Source: Stufish

View gallery - 7 images
4 comments
4 comments
Username
Welcome to the mirror-verse. Very Cool.
christopher
Half of the visitors were filming it on their smartphones, and the other half were too busy using their smartphones to notice it at all...
Wile E. Coyote
A really powerful Mandelbrot fractal zoom would be so cool in there!
Unsold
Never underestimate the experiential moment and the value of FOMO.