The INAHO installation created by Tangent Studio’s Hideki Yoshimoto and Yoshinaka Ono from Japan was inspired by rice plants swaying in the wind.
This 2013 Lexus Design Award project features an array of freestanding lamps that represent ears of rice. As people approach the ears/lamps, they gently lean towards them.
Artificial muscle fibres, controlled by electricity, are attached to the INAHO’s ‘root’. When sensors detect a person, the micro controller in the base makes the muscle fibres contract a little with a certain rhythm, and this triggers the swaying. As the stem of INAHO is made of elastic carbon fibre tube, this small stimuli can be amplified into a dramatic motion.
