The rain stops where you stand

Entering a room of pouring rain does not require an umbrella. Take a step and the water above that position stops, while rain continues all around. RANDOM INTERNATIONAL's Rain Room is an installation made for walking into rain rather than watching it from a distance.

First presented in 2012, the work uses real water. Visitors hear it falling from the ceiling and feel the damp atmosphere, while the system is designed to keep it from landing directly on their bodies. What the eyes and ears perceive differs from what the body feels. That tension is difficult to capture in a distant photograph.

Networked 3D tracking cameras and controls create the small dry area. The system locates visitors and adjusts water flow in the corresponding zone. Instead of displaying virtual rain, it stops real streams to make space for a person. Movement changes the installation.

A permanent version opened in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, in 2018. The Sharjah Art Foundation says it filters and recirculates 2,500 liters of water. The work has appeared in several cities, but that figure and the associated building description apply to Sharjah. Photographs of Busan in RANDOM INTERNATIONAL's exhibition history document that particular installation.

The feeling of controlling rain exists within the system's ability to track people. Although the response may appear immediate, cameras continue finding positions and valves continue adjusting the water. The installation keeps that complex process out of sight while giving visitors a simple action: walk.

Ordinarily, avoiding rain means moving to a sheltered place. Here, the sheltered area moves with the visitor. Water keeps falling, with a gap around the body. Rain Room changes less about the weather than about where a person can stand within it.