[ jamesclar ] Tunnel 'untitled'



A public art installation developed for and in collaboration with Vito Acconci Studios in New York.

This project is currently in concept development phase.
A US city is redeveloping a car and pedestrian pathway that runs through the city. A section of this pathway in the downtown area runs through a tunnel, for which we developed concepts for a reactive light art installation. This installation would react to cars and pedestrians as they passed through it.

The first concept was to use the idea of magnetism through the tunnel. The concrete pillars that hold the tunnel up would be wrapped with linear lights in a pattern that resembled a magnetic field, similar to the pattern a magnet creates when iron shavings are placed near it.



As cars or people entered the tunnel the light from each pillar would be 'attracted' to the object, causing light to arc in it's direction. The higher density the object the more pillars and light would be attracted to it. As the object moved further along it would eventually break from the pillar's pull and the light from it would turn off. So people walking through the tunnel would attract light from one pillar to the next as they moved through. A group of people would attract more light than a single person.

The latest concept, currently in development, deals with flocking patterns.


Instead of using linear lights, thousands of LEDs points will be suspended in a mesh that wraps through the tunnel.

As cars and people pass through the tunnel a swarm of lights will hover above them and lead them through. The swarms will react like birds flocking and will interact with other swarms from cars or people as they pass.

The tunnel then becomes a living hive of lights that react to people and cars as they pass through the space.