Rain Room, an installation by London-based artist collective rAndom International, is an experiment in sensory disruption. A 300 ft² room is rigged to create a constant downpour, but motion-detecting cameras stop the rain anywhere a person is present. The effect is one of being cloaked in dryness, which follows you wherever you go. The rain is actually so loud that the voice of a person a few feet away is drowned out, thus the lacuna of rain occupied by a body actually forms its own “room.”
While the physical reality of responsive rain is jarringly exhilarating, the effect of insulation that eventually settles in is as soothing as it is surreal.