Blow Up


'Scott Sona Snibbe Scott Sona Snibbe

When a viewer blows into Blow Up’s array of twelve small impellers, their breath is transmitted to twelve large fans which amplify their breath patterns into a room-sized field of wind. When this person stops blowing, the wall continues to play back the most recent breathing pattern, captured in an amplified loop, until someone inspires a new pattern. The process of observing one’s breath amplified and removed from one’s body may prompt the sender to consider the connection between one’s body and the air it exchanges, and, more broadly, the existence of any self independent of the air which signals its presence. The work also reminds us of the potentially large consequences of small actions.


Commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco.
Produced with the generous support of The National Endowment for the Arts and Animatics Corporation.
Scott Snibbe: concept, engineering, programming
Brett Bowman: fan wall design and engineering
Michael Wehner: breath console design and engineering
Gizmo Art Production: breath console fabrication
Jim Campbell: custom electronics
Mitsuo Kuroha, Kyle Knobel: production
Lorenzo Wang, Christine Liu: computer graphic visualization
Anne Devine: administration
Mark Scheeff: advisor