H-E-L-L-O From Whirlpool in St. Joe's

Earlier this month, we spent some time up in Coloma for our annual July visit and as we normally do, we went out to St. Joe's for some Silver Beach Pizza and what-have-yous.  On this trip, we went a few times and spent time both down below the bluff and up on top in town.  I covered one of the stops earlier this week with our visit to Silver Harbor Brewing Company.

St. Joe's always has public art and this year is no different.  The theme is 'beach bugs' and there are lots of little statues/art that kids can climb on and have fun, but one of these bugs is a bit different.

It is a caterpiller that was built by a team at Whirlpool named H-E-L-L-O.  You can read more about the bug here.  It was built by a cross-functional team at Whirlpool.  The team that built this thing can be found here.

So...while it it *is* public art, this is interactive public art that takes your photo and then allows you to save it on your device.  There are instructions on the statue that tell you a 3 step process:

1.  Join a specific wifi network
2.  Scan a QR Code that takes you to a url that has a 'take photo' button.
3.  Line up on a line on the sidewalk and 'smile'!

We lined up on the line and snapped the photo.  See it above.  Unfortunately....there were five of us on the line.  But the two smallest kids got cut off!  Still pretty cool, right?

From the site:

H E L L O is a collaboration of seven individuals who contribute to Whirlpool Corporation’s Engineering teams. The process of working with our caterpillar was very similar to how we design a new appliance. It takes creative minds to execute the design, another group to figure out all the buzzers and whistles, and then a final team to ensure the original design intent is feasible. And that is how we tackled our caterpillar! 

H E L L O embodies the principles of engineering; the team of engineers when tasked, made it their mission to create the functions, as directed, in the very best way possible. Engineers do not improve upon a design, which is a very large misconception; they make what you ask … actually happen. And perfectly! So when the opportunity to light, enable speech, take pictures, and create a lighting spectacle in a bug presented itself, the team stepped up and made it happen - perfectly! 

Our team’s talents range from background lighting of products, software algorithms for timing cycles, sensor technology to know when things are finished or when a door is open. We also do lighting for the interior of appliances, sequence lighting (for effects and information,) cameras for refrigeration technology, and WiFi (which we utilize in many appliances for connectivity). 

The design was created with children and families in mind, as well as to show visitors what an engineer can do with all that knowledge! All these skills along with a lot of fun went into the creation of H E L L O!