FLOOR

 

The floor of the Dome Room has twelve areas, each covered with a different textured material to provide a variety of physical impressions.  Figure 1-1 depicts the layout.  In front of the entrance stairs leading up from the Clam Room is an artificial grass floor which slopes up toward the glass floor in the center. The 20-foot octagonal glass floor provides a window to the Clam Room.  This window allows light from handsets in the Clam Room to become real images in the space of the Dome Room.

 

Around the glass area are the floor materials shown in Figure I-1. On the carpeted area are steps and directly across the glass floor from the entrance is a berm.  This raised platform is a foot higher than the glass floor and is roughly a square 10 ft. on a side.  Around the sides of the berm rushes cool air, providing a breezy sensation.  Around the berm is a "reverse slope" sloping up from the glass floor to the mirror.  The rest of the Dome Room floor slopes down toward the mirror.

 

The sound loops embedded in each floor area produce sound signals in the handset which are coordinated with the type of material used on that particular floor area.  An entire area produces the same sound, but each material presents different sounds, providing individual localized environments.

 

The E.A.T. programming Control Console on the reverse slope. From the Control Console, programmers control the light and sound systems manually. 

 

The following is a list of the floor sections: the materials they were composed of and the sounds they emitted:

 

Grass: ducks, turkey gobbling, birds, aviary, frogs, cicadas, lion roaring

 

Steps: walking up stairs, singing scales 

 

Berm: rushing winds, sucking, blowing, panting, ecstatic comments on view from female voices

 

Bouncy material: boing sounds, flubbery sounds, slap of meat

 

Rough Wood: sawing, hammering in nails, sandpaper, termites, tree falling

 

Gravel: dump truck dumping gravel, walking on gravel, kicking gravel, rock banged against rock, avalanche

 

Tile: horses' hooves, shattering glass

 

Asphalt: Mack 6 truck, Harley-Davidson motorcycle, garbage truck, traffic jam, squealing brakes, skids

 

Smooth Wood: tap-dancing, ping-pong, bowling alley, one person walking, crowds walking, basketball bouncing