This project falls within the realm of soft and smooth. It is smooth both in its materiality and in the idea behind it as it tries to break the striatedness of conventional mapping. Main goal was to create an interactive space as part of a larger group installation. Access tries to convey the feeling of being blocked from accessing information freely, as in the case of many countries with corrupted governments, and make it tangible (haptic) through interaction with the structure.

The whole structure is a hybrid of single and double membrane inflatable structure consisted of modular transparent panels without any rigid elements. A powerful air blower supplies the interior pressure and the design of entrance is in a way that it’s airtight without use of any kind of sealer. Each panel is an inflatable component on its own receiving its interior pressure from a heavy-duty air compressor with the aid of solenoid valves and a microcontroller (Arduino). Each panel is a representative of a major website and its inflation level is related to the traffic levels of that website.

In idle mode panels show the total traffic of a website for the whole world for that moment but as soon as someone enters the structure they start to show just a particular country based on where the person is standing. The position of the person is detected by an array of pressure pads underneath the floor mat of the structure. As the person moves inside the structure more panels start to represent the data traffic for countries with a serious censorship condition and they become large enough to force him/her to go to another part of the structure and this chain of actions continues until the person feels completely trapped and under pressure and he has no choice but to leave the structure.