Auckland interactive

March 9, 2010 at 8:54 am
Filed under Architecture, Dynamic Environments, Interactive, Lighting

Auckland’s Ferry Building was transformed into a dynamic light canvas with “Night Lights,” a 5-day installation that invited viewers to add their hands, bodies, and mobile phones to the show. Creative agencies YesYesNo, The Church, Inside Out Productions, and Electric Canvas partnered to put on the show, sponsored by Telecom New Zealand in conjunction with its rebranding. The team projected a sequence of six scenes every hour onto the building’s five-story facade, then invited viewers to interact with the show by projecting their body movements onto the scenes. –P.M.K.

night lights from thesystemis on Vimeo.

Brain waves to produce light show of Olympic proportions

February 8, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Filed under Dynamic Environments, Human Interaction, Interactive, Lighting

“If you’re attending the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia this month, you’ll have the chance to transmit your brain waves across Canada. When they reach their destination, the province of Ontario, they’ll produce a custom light show on one of three prominent Ontario landmarks – presumably to the amazement of thousands of onlookers.” — A.M.

Kinetica with Jason Bruges

February 5, 2010 at 10:33 am
Filed under Interactive, Kinetic, Lighting, Media, Technology, Uncategorized

Jason Bruges’ light installations, interactive interventions, and placemaking projects sit somewhere between the worlds of architecture, art, and interaction design. One of Wallpaper magazine’s 10 “world-changing designers,” Bruges will be a keynote speaker at the 2010 SEGD Conference + Expo June 2-5 in Washington D.C. (Stay tuned for more details…)

In the meantime, Bruges is keeping himself busy with new projects including an Alexander Calder-inspired interactive light piece at Kinetica Art Fair in London. Kinetica is an exhibition of  electronic, robotic, sound, light, time-based, and interdisciplinary new media art. Bruges’ “Screen Cloud” recalls a Calder mobile, with 30 hanging screens that display changing content as they move. Each of the screens “understands” its orientation in relation to the other screens, demonstrating a concept called proprioception. — P.M.K.

Sound Playground

January 27, 2010 at 11:55 am
Filed under Collaboration, Exhibit Design, Interactive, Lighting

Toronto-based interaction design firm, Aesthetec Studio, designed the electronics and interfaces for Sound Playground at the Connecticut Science Center. The interactive sculptures allow visitors to compose music. There are four colorful digital instruments: “a ‘rhythm’ sequencer with 64 touch-sensitive key controls, a ‘melody’ fret board with 13 touch-sensitive frets, ‘harmony’ wheels whose tops spin to make, well, harmony, and an upright bass. The exhibit is meant for several people to play together.” Project collaborators include:  Jeff Kennedy Associates and AV&C.

Find great work-in-progress pics on flickr. — S.N.

Sound Playground at Connecticut Science Center from Aesthetec Studio on Vimeo.

Digital surfaces: the rules and regs

January 12, 2010 at 6:38 pm
Filed under Dynamic Environments, Lighting, Signage

“Look up from your cellphone and your pixelated field of vision stretches to the skyline. Electronic signs are everywhere, from billboards to taxis, and now buildings are becoming digital canvasses. Some are festooned with digital signs, some integrate lights and media to define space and add ornamentation, some combine those approaches. But with that expanded design palette, and the theoretical discussions about the relationship between media and architecture, comes the need to parse complex legalese, since digital facades potentially fall under regulations and ordinances governing signage and lighting.” — A.M.

Augmented reality facade

January 10, 2010 at 8:47 am
Filed under Communication, Dynamic Environments, Human Interaction, Lighting, Uncategorized

“The digital production company Qosmo teamed up Terada Design Architects to create N Building, a commercial tower in tokyo that has an augmented reality façade. The two companies collaborated to design a façade using two-dimensional QR codes that can be read using a mobile phone. Users can point their device at the building and see up to date info from all the shops within. Qosmo also developed an iphone application that allows people to see comments left by users, browse shop info and even download coupons. the comments are tagged through twitter using GPS and are continuouslyupdated.” — A.M.

N Building from Alexander Reeder on Vimeo.

Twinkle, twinkle, little coffee table

December 29, 2009 at 11:21 am
Filed under Furniture, Lighting

It’s a great conversation starter, but be careful with your drink. The new Wave coffee table, by sustainable interiors and furniture designers Because We Can, incorporates 640 bright white LEDs that are activated by movement over its surface. At rest, the LEDs twinkle softly. With movement, light patterns sweep outward and fade, growing stronger the closer the movement to the surface.

It’s also pretty and made with environmentally preferable materials: FSC-certified, zero-formaldehyde American-made maple plywood finished with a durable, low-VOC lacquer. The table consumes only 35 watts of power when lit—less than a single household light bulb.  – P.M.K.

Aussie light graffiti

December 22, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Filed under Kinetic, Lighting, Street Art

“Lucky by All India Radio, is the viewable blood, sweat and tears of Australian based animation company ‘Dee Pee Studios’. It involves a painstaking animation technique, whereby the team paints in the air with glow sticks, frame after to frame to create entire sequences of animation, usually taking a whole night to shoot.” (Thanks to Neatorama for the blurb!) — A.M.

Mirror, Mirror

December 22, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Filed under Exhibit Design, Lighting, Public Art, Uncategorized

The Victoria & Albert’s new digital design exhibition (Decode: Digital Design Sensations) includes a site-specific installation by London-based designer Jason Bruges. Mirror, Mirror—an exploration of narcissism—is set in the V&A’s John Madesjki Garden pond. An arrangement of white dot digital matrices seem to float on the pond, lighting up as visitors approach and, via cameras mounted inside, capture activity and reflect it back to viewers. The animated images are mirrored again in the surface of the pond, creating reflections ad infinitum.

Bruges’ cross-disciplinary studio of architects and lighting, interaction, and industrial designers create works that “sit between the worlds of architecture, site-specific installations art, and interaction design.” Other projects include the 2007 Wind To Light project, which visualized the power of wind by using 500 mini turbines to generate the power to illuminate hundreds of tiny firefly-like LEDs. Smaller-scale projects include a 2007 lighting installation for Greenpeace and Get a Word In (2009), a permanent public art piece at Cambridge Regional College that allows students to share their messages, stories, opinions, and poetry on a custom double-sided scrolling screen. –P.M.K.

Red light?

December 18, 2009 at 11:46 am
Filed under Lighting

“Traffic lights using state-of-the-art LED illumination use 90 percent less electricity, offer a much longer service life and are more durable than their incandescent counterparts. Taking advantage of the countless benefits, cities around the country have been replacing traditional filament-based traffic signal bulbs with LEDs for years. Unfortunately, the low-watt LED units burn much cooler than its white-hot counterpart making it unable to melt snow off weather exposed traffic fixtures.” — A.M.