ScotiaBank Nuit Blanche 2011

Dashing & Aesthetec invite you to smile… Saturday, October 1, 2011. 7:30pm.

Imagine moving through a space that follows you, illuminates you, and connects you with others. The interaction is as passive and immediate or active and complex as you decide.

This is the idea. Create a wholly simple yet visually engaging and interactive environment that compels those within to play, learn, create, smile…

We have created a networked array of computer controlled, embedded electronic light nodes distributed evenly throughout the green space of Fort York that illuminate and interact with users that move amongst them. This interaction evolves in complexity from simple illumination to customized colour and pulsation as users learn, connect with others, and interact with the space.

The installation is simple in it’s presentation. The nodes are spaced in a hexagonal pattern approximately 20 nodes square, 2 metres apart. At night the individual nodes light up and pulsate as individual users move amongst them and evolve as users come together and discover the complex interactions that develop as they interact with one another and the array.

Beneath this simple shell is a complex group of technologies working together to connect the nodes to one another, and drive arrays of extremely bright LED arrays. These technologies connect the nodes to one another, the users and the network to create an awareness of user and user position within the space. As individual people move through the space, light follows or is repelled by them, intensifies, pulsates and diminishes, evolving, all as their interaction with the space and those within it evolves.

As much as this is an art installation, it is also a social experiment. How does a crowd interact with the space? How does a crowd change it’s behavior as the space reacts to or creates different connections within the crowd? Does the crowd discover a message in this interaction and what is that message?

Join us this Saturday, October 1, 2011 at Fort York from sundown to sunrise.

The Conspirators

Aesthetec creates engaging interactive experiences. From museums to art galleries, exhibit booths to innovative products, they find creative solutions to user interaction and technological problems. Beyond just being the "technical" gurus, they use their experience to address usability, aesthetic, and operability issues to make sure that every project looks as good and works as well as imagined.

The Software

DLYT “Smile” Software Simulation

Written in house at Dashing, this software simulation of the hardware interaction, defines the evolution of "roamers" and the "nodes" they roam amongst.
(Hint: Click your mouse to make the roamers follow you and watch how their behavior evolves over time and as they come in to contact with one another.)

The Blog

Get all the back story on the blog at dlyt.me