Indianapolis. Luminapolis.com called for innovative concepts and the well known Acconci Studio sent this: Acconci Studio (Vito Acconci, Nathan DeGraaf, Jono Podborsek, Dario Nunez, Eduardo Marques, Ezio Blasetti) developed ‘Swarm Street’ for Virginia Avenue Garage. It is an ambient intelligence scenario using interactive light. Beside all aesthetic impressions it’s an intelligent way to protect vandalism.

The passage through the building is a volume of color: the color changes from morning to afternoon to night… As you walk through, as you cycle through, as you drive through, the thickness of color is broken: a sparkle here, a sparkle there, another sparkle in-between –– one sparkle affects the other, pulls the other, like a magnet – a point of sparkle is stretched out into a line of sparkles is stretched out into a network of sparkles…

It’s you that sets off the sparkles: you’re surrounded by a mesh of structure that holds LED’s –you’re moving under and next to a jungle of branches, a tangle, a ravel, the lights turn on-and-off as you pass through… The sparkles multiply, like a swarm of fireflies: they’re above you, below you, they follow you, they spread out in front of you and light your way through the tunnel. When another pedestrian, another cyclist, another car, comes toward you or passes you by, some of these fireflies have found a new attractor, they go off in another direction, a new flock emerges elsewhere, the flock keeps shifting… More>