ART+COM's interactive video installation Reactive Sparks on LED-Screens

from November 8, 2007 until April 2008

A reactive video installation, which responds to the flow of traffic on site in real time, will be mounted on the OSRAM SEVEN SCREENS. The traffic passing the OSRAM building located on the Mittlerer Ring in Munich was the point of departure for the concept of the site-specific installation Reactive Sparks created by the Berlin design studio ART+COM.

In the project Reactive Sparks every vehicle that drives past the SEVEN SCREENS is individually tracked, thereby triggering a clearly visible reaction on the stelae for drivers and pedestrians. The installation’s basic theme is movement energy, which finds its visual counterpart in light, thus becoming a global-social metaphor for human vitality. A base light on the stelae represents the flow of traffic: the more dynamic the flow of cars is, the higher the light waves beat.

At the same time, a "temporal memory" is integrated in the stelae. The number of vehicles that drive pass these are stored and then act to influence the strength of lights on the individual stelae: the more intense the traffic during the day, the more intense the strength of the light in the evening. The pattern of light on the screens moves in a continuous, gentle motion. When the flow of traffic is steady, the light waves appear in surges and are faster than they would be by stop and go traffic.

Each passing vehicle also creates a vertical light tail, as a direct reaction, on one of the stelae. This individual depiction is based on the same principal as the exposure of a photograph: if a car passes by the OSRAM headquarter quickly, it creates a long tail that is only visible for a short moment. A vehicle that is moving more slowly, by comparison, produces a shorter tail that is visible for longer.