Yuanning HanDesigner, Researcher
Spinning Season
Academic Project
Group Project
Collaborators: Ursual(Shuixin) Wang, Zhihan(Dee) Liu, Amy Zhang
2024 Fall

Spinning Seasons is an installation set within Little Island, NYC. It consists of two spinning wheels featuring abstract floral patterns, inviting visitors to engage by spinning them. This interaction is designed to spark curiosity about the surrounding blooms and encourage visitors to observe the seasonal changes in the landscape. 

This design resonates with the narratives on Little Island-public engagement, play, seasonal changes, and blooms in the landscape . Although there are existing spinning installations in the park, our spinning objects aim to build connections between play and seasonal blooms, creating a deeper connection between visitors and the landscape.

While this installation is designed for the general public, we've found it particularly attractive to children due to its better accessibility and brighter colors compared to existing installations in the park. This phenomenon has led us to reflect on who may be unintentionally overlooked or excluded when we refer to the term “public.”

Video Presentation




Design Process and Reflections
In this project, we drew inspiration from Little Island’s "Spinning Interactions" to create our own interactive installation, adding a Spinning Object to the park. We extended the idea of "spinning" to symbolize seasonal cycles, aiming to spark visitors' curiosity about landscape changes.

During implementation, we found children to be the primary users, likely due to our installation’s bright colors, lower height, and lighter construction. This highlighted our initial oversight of demographic factors and the broader issue of marginalization in public space design. Reflecting on Little Island’s past as a gathering space for NYC’s LGBTQIA+ community, we reconsidered our approach, leading us to explore designing specifically for children.

While our design enhanced playfulness, it did not effectively prompt curiosity about seasonal changes. Our interaction followed existing patterns rather than introducing new ways of engagement. As Harpreet noted, noticing more-than-human elements requires a deeper shift in mindset, beyond playful interaction alone.
Back to Projects