Interactive Walls

Blowing on pinwheels in one section triggered the movement of balloons in the walls video image. In another area, an audio mixer allowed guests to push a lever to start a variety of events: a laser party with dance music, flickering taxi lights, or turning the Williamsburg Bridge lights on with the sounds of a train going by.

A 20-foot-long interactive wall of letters in the lobby gave guests an opportunity to create words.

Lifestyle images layered with infrared technology at Target's after-party for the MTV Movie Awards in 2008 allowed guests to interact with the images using the heat and movement of their bodies.

Reminiscent of an artist's studio, a table for CS Interiors designed by Casa Spazio with Atelier Turner had paper walls, ample brushes, and open jars of paint. Guests were encouraged to get creative and add to the background mural.

Guests could leave comments on an interactive graffiti wall marked with the SodaStream logo.

At Gensler and Herman Miller's vignette, the dining table was surrounded by walls covered in thousands of Hershey's Kisses wrapped in purple foil. Attendees were invited to take one as a symbol of the "many hands it takes to spark positive change."

B[eye]t's lighting installation

CNN used this type of interactive video wall during its election coverage and now it's available for events. PSAV offers two standard sizes, each using 46-inch square screens configured in either a two-by-two or three-by-three format. The company can also create custom screens of any size. The wall operates like a large iPad with about two dozen apps to create maps, presentations, and games. The product can be used as a presentation screen in educational sessions or in common areas as interactive digital signage, for example to provide venue maps and sponsor information. At a trade show, the wall can display exhibitor logos and information when users click on a specific booth. Within a booth, users can input their email addresses to receive additional information, creating an instant lead retrieval system.

In the basement space of 82 Mercer, the festival's casino sponsor the Borgata created a lounge space that let attendees play casino games, snap pics in a photo booth, and paint the interactive graffiti wall, which included chocolate "paint" and "spray paint." The activation was open for three days, running from Thursday to Saturday.

In another installation, gala guests could draw or write what design means to them using more of 3M's brightly colored adhesive strips. The corporation, which has been involved with the Cooper-Hewitt's exhibitions in the past, donated the supply of tape.

The pins on the 40- by 20-foot wall were mounted onto a printed backdrop, so after runners took them down the design remained.

An interactive plasma graffiti wall, sponsored by Heineken, let guests try out their virtual tagging skills.

To highlight the event's focus on children and fund-raising for a charter school, the 2006 Robin Hood Foundation gala had giant chalkboards in the reception area set up in New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. David Stark sketched local landmarks and iconic scenes on the walls, and, during the event, guests could add their own designs with chalk provided in bowls on the cocktail tables.

In Toronto, guests could make Lim turn around on a park bench by taking a picture of, or with, him, or, by eating candy from a dispenser, they could trigger a sequence of all the cast members in the shot to begin eating their picnic foods.