You’ve never experienced Italian Renaissance architecture quite like this. German artist Carsten Höller, known for his playful interactive installations, will be installing a pair of slides in a double helix formation within the famed Palazzo Strozzi of Florence, spiraling visitors nearly 66 feet from the second floor terrace to the courtyard below. Newly released renderings of ‘The Florence Experiment’ show the temporary structure complementing the classic aesthetics of the stone palace completed in 1538. But it’s more than just a fun way to get around the historic building.

Each guest who braves the slide will be asked to hold a plant in their lap for the journey. Once they exit, they’ll hand the plant over to scientists in a laboratory, who will investigate whether human emotion has a verifiable impact on the plant’s growth. Another space within the laboratory will feature two movie screens: one showing comedies, the other horror movies.

The artist theorizes that the contrasting emotions experienced by both audiences will transfer different volatile chemical compounds to wisteria plants growing on the facade of the Palazzo via a system of tubes.

If the renderings make you skeptical, consider this: Höller has pulled off similar slide installations before, including one at Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2006 and ‘Isometric Slides’ at the Hayward Gallery in London in 2015, pictured above.

Create a visible ripple effect as you move within this dazzling interactive infinity room by Japanese collective teamLab, producing your own unique wave patterns influenced by your gestures, movements and speed. For their new installation at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, entitled ‘Moving Creates Vortices and Vortices Create Movement,’ teamLab took inspiration from the ocean and all of the ways in which the currents and flows of water are altered by objects and environmental conditions.

This video shows off the stunning effects as a lone visitor makes her way through the room. You can see as each of her steps results in a flurry of tiny light particles that transform into lines and then form patterns, ultimately joining together into the vortices referenced by the name. The faster she moves, the stronger her ‘force’ is exerted upon the waves.

“If a person is not moving or there are no more people, no flow will occur and nothing will be present in the space,” says teamLab. “Works are born and continue to transform under the influence of people’s movement.”

“In the ocean, complicated terrain such as an island produces flow velocity difference and a vortex is generated. Vortices swirl up the carcasses of organisms sunk to the bottom of the ocean, producing nutritious seawater. This becomes a source of nutrition for plankton to grow and nourishes the sea life. Vortices therefore contribute to enriching the ocean.”

Rippling, unfolding, slithering and glowing like bioluminescent creatures, these kinetic and illuminated works of art are mesmerizing to watch. We can’t help being fascinated by the combination of light and motion, especially when it’s integrated into clothing, responds to our gaze or voices, or is engineered into monumental interactive installations of laser beams for our slack-jawed amusement.

Sound Activated Clothing by Ying Gao

‘Incertitudes’ and ‘(NO)Where (NOW)here’ by fashion designer Ying Gao are two series of unusual reactive garments – the former covered in rippling dressmaker pins, and the latter moving like a living creature while glowing eerily in the dark. The photo luminescent thread works with eye tracking technology to activate movement by the gaze of spectators, while the pins respond to spectators’ voices.

Experimental Kinetic Glass Installations by LASVIT

Czech lighting company LASVIT presents a series of experimental kinetic glass installations during Milan Design Week, creating immersive illuminated environments that move and shift in synchronized rhythms.

La Vie en Rose by Atelier Öi & USM

A company called USM produces a network of industrial components known as USM Haller Systems that offer infinite reuse and reconfiguration possibilities. For Designer’s Saturday 2014 in Switzerland, the company commissioned Atelier Öi to use these parts as a base for a kinetic art installation expressing these possibilities. ‘La Vie en Rose’ is the result.

CL:OC Installation by GROSSE 8

Hanging flurorescent tubes powered by twenty-eight motors hang in the air, constantly rearranging themselves to display the time in digital numbers. Created by German design collective GROSSE 8, the sculpture debuted at Interior Design Week Cologne.

Big Dipper: Helical Kinetic Sculpture by Michael Candy

Looming in the air like some kind of monstrous mechanical spider, BIG DIPPER by Michael Candy is suspended within an old warehouse in India, just waiting to scare the pants off a passerby. It features 18 fluorescent tubes sticking out of a plywood and metal body.

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Living Light 11 Transforming Kinetic Illuminated Art Installations

Mutant sea urchins seem to have evolved into monstrous, buoyant creatures capable of rising above the surface of the sea, glowing softly against the skyline in Singapore. Made from crocheted lace, these three oversized urchin installations by Choi + Shine invite passersby to pause within them and take in the city through their patterned shells.

Created for this year’s i Light Marina Bay Festival, which focuses on sustainability, The Urchins are hand-crafted and interactive, each one hanging high enough to dwarf even the tallest visitors. Made from UV- and weather-resistant polyester cord stretched on an aluminum frame, the urchins hang from ultra thin cables.

“At night, the mysteriously hovering and glowing large Urchins create a sense of magic as if time has stopped,” says Choi + Shine. “When viewers enter into the Urchins, they will be surrounded by a single layer of glowing, lacy surface, where they can enjoy the detail and texture of the Urchins and see the city, water and the sky through this visual filter.”

“When other viewers see the occupants in the Urchins, the occupants will glow within the lacy room, creating an illusion of ethereal levitation of the occupants, while the occupants become a part of the artwork.”

The exclusive experience of dining at this Tokyo restaurant, which serves just eight patrons a day, is not really about the food – though Saga Beef restaurant Sagaya-Ginza is not necessarily lacking in quality. It’s just that watching nature spring to life all around you, cycling through the seasons to represent some of Japan’s most striking natural beauty, tends to eclipse whatever’s on your plate. Art collective teamLab, known for their creative projection-based installations, created a multi-sensory immersive experience with ‘Worlds Unleashed and Then Connecting.’

In classic teamLab form, this projection is not just immersive, but also interactive, responding to the dishes as they’re placed on the table as well as movements of the diners and servers. While other well-known works by the collective tend to unfold within a larger space, like a warehouse or gallery, this installation is private and intimate.

“When a dish is placed on the table, the world contained within the dish is unleashed, unfolding onto the table and into the surrounding space,” the artists explain. “The worlds unleashed from each dish connect in the external space creating a new larger world. The worlds unleashed are affected by the other dishes on the table.”

“For example, a bird unleashed from one dish can perch on the branch of a tree unleashed from another. The trees that grow from each dish are not identical; their sizes and shapes are affected by the worlds unleashed by the other dishes on the table. These unleashed worlds are also affected by your behavior. If you stand still, a tiny bird might alight on your hand; if you move suddenly, it might fly away. The worlds unleashed from the dishes on the table influence each other, react to the actions of the visitors, and combine to create one single continuous world. The world is constantly changing from moment to moment and no two moments are alike.”