Sensing Change, a placemaking art installation at 151 North Franklin Street in downtown Chicago, is an exploration of light and motion that dynamically responds to its surrounding environment.
The installation forms the anchor of a larger initiative by Beacon Capital Partners to deliver a next-generation workplace. Viewable from the street, the office terrace, and the upper floors of the building, the piece creates a vibrant and welcoming environment for both tenants and the general public.
For this collaboration with ESI Design and UpLIGHT, AV&C created a software environment that monitors local weather data and choreographs visual elements across the multi-layered canvas. The audience’s immediate experience of being “in” the elements is heightened, reflected and abstracted in these playful visualizations. In support of the client’s building activations, the software also enables seasonal media and supports special events.
Front and rear-facing low resolution LED fixtures alternate to create an interplay of direct and reflected light textures in and around the climbing plantings on the outdoor trellis. The resulting installation is both a living green wall and a mixed resolution digital canvas.
Sensing Change’s flowing permutations, derived from live local data, ensure the piece is unique, constantly changing, and always relevant to its place and time. This contextual, algorithmic tuning realizes AV&C’s “deep media” approach to bringing physical spaces to life with digital layers.
