Dancing Sand

The exhibit that brings sand to dance

In addition to air and water, sand is one of the elemental resources of the earth. His versatility inspired us to design the exhibit “Dancing Sand”.

The exhibit is built of a huge glass container. Just where a smooth surface of glass granules lays in front of you, fountains of fine sand shoot up and create rhythmic forms. It almost seems as if the sand has liquefied.

A matrix of 225 valves – hidden under the sand – provides the necessary compressed air. The choreography of the dancing sand can be determined individually. Microcontrollers pass the programmed animation to the individual valves. These lead compressed air into the granules with short pulses in the millisecond range and thus throw the grains of sand high into the air. The mesmerizing effect especially captivates children, but even adults are fascinated by the aesthetic play with the sand.