On the night of April 28th, downtown Memphis was turned into an interactive lighting installation as 9 buildings were integrated with a system that sampled the information of movement and energy within buildings and transferred it to the tops to control a dynamic lighting display. With Inside / Out, by James Clar, people walking around the South Main gallery district of Memphis were able to see each building node and its activity before entering them. So if one gallery or coffee shop was busier than another place down the street, people could see that activity registering via the panels on top of the buildings.

Each building node used a laser diode system to track the amount of people entering and exiting the space, and then used this variable to create animations and patterns on the rooftops. The rooftop system consisted of a microcontroller to intepret the data sent to it from below and solid state relays to control 16 bulbs diffused by blue plexi in a display.

“Inside / Out” attempts to use architecture and buildings as giant, living pixels. And by taking the information from inside these pixels to control the lighting outside makes it possible to create a living canvas over downtown Memphis whose acvtive mesh and dynamic display represents the interaction between people and architecture.

(video)

Other projects by James Clar: Light Mesh for Habitat hotel, the Infinity Case.