Digital art installations as we have come to know them most often exist in controlled gallery settings with a captive audience.

But this is the environment where they could be just as, if not more useful. How can sensing systems, animated lighting, image displays and sound generation be embedded in the urban environment to make public spaces and communities work better?

We already use digital in public space, but this is not the direction I am interested in

We navigate the city every day, for better of worse, there is an interaction between people and the environments that we have built. I like this quote by Jan Gehl, it creates a context for what I am talking about in this presentation, the image is of Brasilia, a fully planned urban environment with a total lack of human scale. 

Some early ideas and goals that inspired a point of view on what digitally driven installations in public space could accomplish..
 

How can digital installations embedded in this environment make the experience of commuting more pleasant? more engaging? more informative? more relaxing? what if the stirring of this environment could evoke..

The sensation of standing by a grassy clearing with a subtle breeze. The movement of hundreds of people in a commuter hub is really like a virtual wind animating a grassy field.. an urban natural phenomena?

To work with urban infrastructure to me is very exciting, it is a way to embellish the areas we use every day, in a way we live with these spaces, they should be adorned. In this project we created a new experience of an existing pedestrian walkway in Toronto. 

Vanishing point effects, peripheral animation and soundscapes where created in the first staging of Lightbridge. Version 2 of the software and system architecture will make possible a responsiveness to pedestrians, virtual wind (the movement of people) animates the virtual grass ( animated light patterns )

Another installation that is completely responsive to its environment, including the way in which it is powered, completely by the Sun. Red Green or Blue are generated by different types of sensing, the colours combine additively to create a mixtures of colours over a 300 foot canopy of light. 

This project was a chance to explore these inspirations and goals..

For this project we also created our own circuitry, all proven technology that has been in existence for over 15 years. Pictured here is a solar charging circuit combined with a sensing system that generates the different colours depending upon what is sensed in the area below each unit. 

An example of 'placemaking' where a previously un noticed place was given a new significance, in this case the entrance to a new borough. Forty arcs of light create an illuminated canopy that automatically turns on at dusk.

The arcs of light individually respond to people who walk or ride underneath, the respond to the vibration of the overhead train. Each arc is autonomous and together the visualise the unseen or unnoticed activity and forces in the area. Another side effect of this is increased sense security, since the lights respond to individuals the also make one more self aware of their own presence in the area.

The previous project is a very passive approach to urban space, this project is the opposite, direct engagement. We wanted to explore how direct engagement works in urban space. 

In this work the idea of the spot lights are reversed, they avoid anyone who come near. This created a very playful atmosphere, was immediately engaging and even facilitated social interaction among strangers.

The sensing tracking and lighting system were situated high above the pedestrian zone

What's next? Working further with the idea that digital art works embedded in the architecture and urban environment can not only create new contexts and associations but also enhance the aesthetic experience. 

Current project is a 35 storey architectural illumination that serves to tell people in the area about the level of the tide. This project will be complete in April 2015.

See www.urbanvisuals.com for more about current and recent projects.