A rendering of MIMMI, which is being installed at Minneapolis Convention Center.
A cloud is coming over Minneapolis — at least, that’s the plan of the winners for the first Creative City Challenge. The contest invited architects and designers to come up with an innovative, interactive and eco-friendly temporary installation for the plaza at Minneapolis Convention Center.
The plaza is a green space at the convention center that, according to MCC Executive Director Jeff Johnson, remained underutilized. The installation will serve as an attraction to bring more people to the convention center who will use the food and beverage outlets, as well as help to attract events.
“A few years ago we looked at doing a big scale remodel or renovation but it was pretty expensive, so we decided to try something on a smaller and more temporary scale,” he said.
The contest attracted 16 designs. A Facebook vote whittled the playing field down to five concepts and a jury that included representatives from the convention center, Mayor’s office, Minneapolis Art Commission and a few others decided the winner. It is a process that Johnson hopes will become a yearly, or even twice-a-year, tradition.
“We hope it’s something that people get excited about and look forward to, something that changes and becomes new and renewed each year,” said Johnson
As per the submission requirements, at least half of the design team had to be Minnesota residents. Jack Cochran and Carl Koepcke went to undergraduate school together at the University of Minnesota, and are self-described ‘partners-in-crime’ and co-founders of Urbain DRC. Along with INVIVIA, they designed Minneapolis Interactive Macro-Mood Installation, or MIMMI (pronounced ‘Mimi’), which will be installed by June 7 and removed by Oct. 14.
Koepcke learned about the Creative City Challenge online and thought it would be a good idea for him and Cochran, who both recently completed Master’s degrees, to practice their skills.
The inflatable, cloud-shaped structure is linked to social media. Software mines Twitter feeds from people whose profiles state that they are in or from Minneapolis for certain words that correlate with positive or negative emotions, and lights inside MIMMI change color based on mood. Cochran said that currently, there are two ideas for positive-to-negative color schemes: either hot to cold colors, such as bright red to dull blue; or a more detailed weather-related theme from colors associated with sunny days to eerie thunder storms. The lights come on at dusk, and a misting system runs during the day, with mist that is stronger when people are happy and dries up when there are more negative words.
MIMMI's software will mine the Twitter data every five seconds, determine how positive or negative the city's prevailing mood is based on keywords in people's posts, and change the LED lights to correspond. For example, if the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League win a game, people from Minnesota will likely be posting positive, happy messages on Twitter. MIMMI's software will be able to look at all of the posts, determine the percentage that are positive, and change MIMMI's color scheme to reflect the city's mood in near-real time.
“It’s also extremely important to all of us to be environmentally conscious. We’re using 50 LED lights which have much lower energy input than most lights, so even with all of the fans that we’re using to run the balloon, water pumps, and lights, we’re basically using about a tenth of the energy use of a small family home,” said Cochran. “We’re also using an Oxford Nylon material for the balloon that we plan to recycle and turn into ponchos designed by Minneapolis local Drew Kleiner.”
Koepcke added that the majority of the materials used to make the 72-foot-long by 32-foot-wide MIMMI are recyclable.
The convention center put up $50,000 of its annual budget to serve as a prize to fund the winning design. That money has to include permits, materials, installation and tear down, as well as any money the designers want to pay themselves.
“This is more of a passion project for us,” added Cochran. “Long story short, we’re basically using all of the budget for the installation itself. We’ll pay ourselves with proceeds from the ponchos.”
Koepcke called the months-long process from the initial idea to actual installation a great learning experience. “It’s definitely a unique opportunity for people of our age and experience level,” he added.
Though Creative City Challenge’s current budget is $50,000, Johnson hopes that some of the convention center’s partners will be interested in coming on as sponsors for future projects.
“It’s hard to sell something that no one has seen yet, but this year we’ll be able to show some of our partners what a great thing MIMMI is and, the more money that we can put into the award, the greater talent and projects we can attract,” said Johnson.
Koepcke and Cochran said the Creative City Challenge is an experience they might want to repeat in the future, but not immediately.
“As far as next year goes, maybe we can just be on the jury,” said Cochran.
Interviewed for this story: Jack Cochran and Carl Koepcke, (952) 905-8958; Jeff Johnson, (612) 335-6310