Caroline Parent and several colleagues have completed the installation of a breathtaking high tech art project at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, NH. Caroline and Rob Zwiercan of One Idea, LLC in Somersworth, NH, as well as Christopher Andrews of Stimuli Sight & Sound in Dover, combined their talents to bring back the hospital’s popular waterfall in the lobby, only this time the waterfall is an animated creation.
“The original waterfall, which featured a flow of actual water, was shut down during the pandemic for health reasons,” explains Caroline, who directed this project. “However, everyone missed the waterfall and administrators wondered if there was a way to create a virtual version. Thanks to the expertise of Rob and Christopher, there was.”
Zwiercan’s One Idea studio specializes in animation and video and he was charged with creating the water animation and the sound. Andrews did the connecting wiring, provided the high-powered visual projector and audio hardware, and uploaded the animation into an operational program. Caroline, who has worked on art installations for the hospital for the past 20 years, helped create a natural looking design, complete with landscaping around the waterfall’s “rock face.” This is the first digital animation art installation at Wentworth-Douglass to date.
The result is a virtual waterfall that stretches from the atrium ceiling to the floor and cascades over rock into a granite “basin” which is surrounded by live plants. The virtual waterfall is easy to maintain and outputs no moisture particles into the air, which was one of the risk factors associated with the real waterfall.
“Everyone loves the new waterfall,” says Caroline. “It fosters a tranquil atmosphere, which promotes healing and helps create a peaceful space within the hospital.”
The waterfall’s look will change with the seasons, thanks to more virtual “magic.” Summer will see a big oak tree by the waterfall and an image of looking up through its leaves into the sunlight; autumn will feature New Hampshire birches and clusters of yellow leaves surrounding the cascade, while winter will have falling snow. Spring will have a grouping of birch trees with green leaves emerging as the trees gently sway above yellow daffodils at the base of the waterfall. Caroline says the seasons will cycle, but the regular waterfall vision will still be interspersed with the seasonal images.
“It was wonderful to work with Rob and Christopher to create this lovely project for Wentworth-Douglass,” says Caroline. “It was a true team effort and we are pleased to bring something new and exciting to the hospital. It’s a different kind of art and it worked perfectly to fulfill this need.”