Rina Chen, Amelia Lochhead, Niloofar Sanandajizadeh

"As we spent more time with our friend the Red Balloon, he became more alive. By the end he had a personality. We got to know our friend by experimenting with physics, behavior design, computer vision, and material dynamics. The Red Balloon is an exploration of displaying personality through movement by mimicking a “first-encounter”. When the balloon is approached slowly, it is also curious, and slowly approaches you back. However, when caught off guard, the balloon flees backwards, away from the viewer. This movement is similar to that of an animal, or even human who is being approached for the first time. Drawing inspiration from Arthor Ganson, we hoped to bring a magical, lifelike dimension to a recognizable object through mechanisms. "