Wind and rain conspired to set loose a gigantic inflatable piece of installation art, turning it into a kind of impromptu performance piece for drivers and bystanders as one (very big) red balloon rolled by. In some regards, the resulting viral sensation has taken on a life of its own, extending the reach of the sculpture far beyond its target audience.

Designed to be a source of urban interaction, the RedBall was in the process of being wedged between two downtown businesses before being redirected by forces of nature. Museum staff, installation participants and a handful of bystanders chased the recently-liberated sphere down the streets, eventually catching, deflating and returning it to the installation site. Instagram user jeremy419 happened to catch much of the action from atop a nearby building. Meanwhile, a hacked version of video puts a fresh tomato-style spin on this unexpectedly interactive work of  art.

The museum’s director of communications, Kelly Garrow, recapped the sequence of events for reporters: “It started pouring rain, so the ball was wet and slippery. The wind picked up, and it popped up and just started going. You can see in the video that’s going viral that it rolled about halfway down a block and then mysteriously took a left-hand turn. It made its way partially down the street before people caught up with it.“

Despite its size (15 feet in diameter), the ball weighs only 250 pounds, minimizing its potential for damage to one bent street sign – quite tame compared to rounded corporate art sculpture set loose in Fight Club as part of Project Mayhem.

A world-traveling artwork, the ball was created by Kurt Perschke to be pressed into tight spaces and has been in play for nearly a decade without incident. Meanwhile, add this escapee to Nena’s 99 Luftballons lyrics and you get a nice rounded “100 red balloons go by.”

Former Facebook and PayPal employee Chris Robinson is two years into an epic backyard project rising behind his home in Palo Alto: a structure dubbed the Tsunamiball.

A veteran of Silicon Valley with no nautical or construction experience, Robinsin met his wife in Fukushima and, after seeing the disaster unfold, set to work trying to solve the issue of tsunami-proof architecture.

His capsule is 22-foot-long, 10-foot-wide, 8.5-foot-high and built of plywood and epoxy, envisioned in Adobe Illustrator, vetted by engineers then slowly constructed by hand. The inspiration? Seaworthy escape pods and spherical treehouses. You can see a video of the building process over at Wired – additional videos available on Tsunamiball.com.

So far he has finished most of the hull but still needs to add buoyant insulation, a structural keel and an electric motor fueled by solar batteries. While his own California home is unlikely to ever go underwater (at least not literally), Robison plans to test the seaworthiness of his creation in the nearby Pacific Ocean, and then perhaps rent the place out on AirBNB. Maybe it can also serve as a prototype for a new kind of disaster-resistant design for coastal areas.