Dimitris Papanikolaou: Aerial Breaths

We understand our social identity in relation to others, but we perceive others implicitly through the traces of their interactions with the physical space near us. What if our urban environments could remotely mediate these traces, allowing unrelated people to experience each other’s presence collectively? “Aerial Breaths” investigates our physical environment as a medium for collective agency, enabling individuals to animate a giant, transformable inflatable object through bursts of air triggered their mobile phones. Visitors experience each other’s presence through the structure’s movements, which give form to emerging patterns of cooperation, competition, territoriality, and social identity in real time.

As a creator and researcher working at the intersection of digital media, space, and society, I have always been fascinated by questions of the individual and the collective – by the ability of a single person to influence the behavior of a group, and by how the dynamics of these relationships can be orchestrated through design. “Aerial Breaths” is part of a series of projects I have been developing over the past ten years, which aim to empower people with technologies that allow them to territorially manifest their presence and interact with others by teleoperating their shared physical environment.

Territoriality is an intrinsic characteristic of human behavior: we act territorially instinctively, driven by a natural inclination to assert control over our surroundings. Yet territoriality is also profoundly social. We act territorially expressively, to signal our presence to others; reflectively, in response to the territorial behavior of others; and imitatively, when we join a group’s behavioral dynamics out of a sense of companionship. According to social identity theory, such interactions reinforce our perception of identity by prompting us to reflect on what unites us and what sets us apart within a territorial context.

“Aerial Breaths” invites people to collectively animate a monumental inflatable object by sending incremental bursts of air through their personal devices. Each anonymous contribution subtly alters the form of a lifelike cube enclosed within a transparent cubic shell, rendering individual presence perceptible yet untraceable. The project playfully interrogates social behavior through one of information technology’s most essential affordances: the ability to collectively teleoperate our shared world. Will we interfere with or complement each other’s actions?

Large-scale inflatables have a long history in the experimental arts and architecture as lightweight, low-cost means for creating monumental objects and structures from broadly available materials such as ripstop fabric or vapor-barrier polyethylene sheeting. They were used extensively during the Radical Architecture movement, including UFO’s “Urboeffimeri”, Haus-Rucker-Co’s “OASE No. 7”, and works by Ant Farm. In public art, pioneering examples include Graham Stevens’ “Atmosfields”, Jeffrey Shaw’s “Airground”, Tomás Saraceno’s “Poetic Cosmos of the Breath” and “Museo Aero Solar”, and Otto Piene’s and Doron Gazit’s inflatable structures. “Aerial Breaths” continues this tradition by integrating contemporary technologies for collective and remote interaction.

Design, technology and production

The installation comprises a 6 × 6 × 6m transparent cube enclosing a 5 × 5 × 5m opaque cube. The outer cube remains constantly inflated, serving as a stable, weather-protective display case, while the inner cube inflates and deflates in response to air bursts triggered by mobile devices. A fan positioned outside the structure keeps the outer cube inflated with external air, while a second fan inside it moves air between the two volumes, dynamically shaping the inner cube, which deflates through surface vents. The outer cube is made from 200-micron transparent LDPE and the inner from 100-micron opaque LDPE. Concrete blocks around the perimeter anchor the base and keep it flat.

The technological platform consists of three main components:

1. A WebSocket server, which manages communication between users’ mobile devices and the microcontrollers that control the fans. It queues incoming commands, forwards them to the appropriate devices, and broadcasts system updates in real time.
2. A microcontroller, which connects to the server via Wi-Fi, receives air-burst commands, activates a fan for a short duration, and reports its status back to the server.
3. A browser-based client, which provides a simple, web-based interface through which users interact with the system. The interface updates dynamically as devices connect or disconnect and is accessible from any networked device.

The Fellowship was originally centered around developing the code and platform, but in discussion with the Onassis ONX and Onassis AiR teams, I decided to shift the focus toward building a working prototype. The scale of the fabrication requirements proved substantial, and transporting early prototypes from North Carolina (where I kept some in a storage space) turned out to be unfeasible due to their size and high shipping costs. Ultimately, fabrication was carried out in-house, in an industrial space generously provided by Onassis Culture. One of the key challenges was sourcing industrial fans that met both performance and budget constraints. I was fortunate to locate a suitable manufacturer in China with a distributor in France.

As a performative project that relies not only on software, technology, and engineering, but also on human interaction and UX/UI design, the development process followed a continuous feedback loop. Ideas were tested and reshaped – not only for material and technical feasibility, but also for performative questions: How long should each interaction last? On which side will the prototype collapse during deflation? What shape is neutral and physically viable given the available skillsets? These are not decisions that can be fully resolved in a design studio and then simply executed in a workshop; they require ongoing testing and reevaluation throughout the production process.

The AiR/ONX Fellowship offered me a unique opportunity to delve into a personal artistic exploration and to share my work with the public. An invaluable part of this experience was the interaction with other Onassis AiR Fellows. Although I am used to intellectual exchanges as an academic, it was unusual to encounter them in the context of an artistic residency, where creative agency often takes precedence over research objectivity.

A defining aspect of the residency was the opportunity to establish a workshop and coordinate a team of 25 motivated, talented student volunteers, driven purely by their thirst to learn and their enthusiasm for working on a project of this scale. Equally important was the support of Onassis Culture, which provided an industrial space for building and developing the project. Without both, the work would not have been possible.

The Onassis AiR Spring Open Days offered an invaluable opportunity to present the project to the public. Observing how visitors interacted with the technology allowed me to make key decisions about future directions. In the lab, users are patient with delayed responses; in public, timely feedback is essential to sustain attention. I also appreciated the audience’s strong engagement with the scale of the installation.

Last but not least, I am grateful to the incredible Onassis AiR and Onassis ONX teams for their professionalism, constant support, and unwavering positivity, especially Sotiria, Effie, Ioanna, Nefeli, Prodromos, and the rest of the technical support team.

Concept, Creation, Direction, Technical Development: Dimitris Papanikolaou | Urban Synergetics Lab

Student Assistants (alphabetically): Dimitris Bimis, Persa Bouziana, Antonis Chonta, Napoleon Christofis, Marianna Christopoulou, Viktoria Kalampali, Vasiliki Kalkounou, Katerina Kartsidima, Angelos Manaras, Iro Michailidi, Nikos Oikonomou, Marianna Pantazi, Maria-Antonia Papaioannou, Sofia Papastathopoulou, Anastasia Pateli, Alkiviadis Proiskos, Ioanna Rantza, Stavrina Skara, Zoina Stavrou, Artemis Tsekoura, Anni Tsilegiri, Filippos Valsamos, Zoi Voulgaroglou, Giorgos Xiross

Other sponsors: “Aerial Breaths” builds on research initially supported by the Knight Foundation, the Miami Foundation, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.