DIY Surveillance Equipment

Tonight we continued the design process on our next installation, Eavesdrop.  We laid out the fabric we dyed last week in order to define the overall "look" of our inflatable surveillance room.  This particular inflatable space won't have a floor because the cotton sheets we choosen to scavenge absorb quite a bit of water.  That means that the inflatable will be constructed as one giant sheet that is transformed into a cylinder and them pinched off at the top.  This type of 3D form also makes the sewing process much simpler. 

We also spent a fair amount of time designing our mechanical bugs which will do the actual eavesdropping.  We're going to go with 3/8" PEX plumbing tube in either gray, orange or blue and then apply large funnels on each end.   Scatter around the gallery space will be several wooden "mic stands" which will hold the funnels up off the ground and will have some etched prompt on them.  A call for a noun or a call for a noise.  ex. Tell me your favorite color. or What does an angry duck sound like?  These tubes will all be gathered back to the inflatable where they will be bundled into pairs of headphones (made from funnels).  We'll ask visitors to put on a pair and use the sounds they hear to fill out a mad-lib style form which will either be a label they wear or something we pin to the walls of the inflatable space.