Since the government building is located off a major stop on the Metro Rail system, Depeña sought to integrate the idea of daily circulation into his piece using sensors and light. The team custom designed five thirteen-foot tall LED light boxes, between six and eight feet wide, to be installed throughout the lobby space. Focus Lighting developed custom camera tracking software for the project allowing the display of abstract reflections of passers-by using data collected from this software.
When no movement is tracked, the light boxes replay animations from previously recorded interactions with visitors. A presentation to the City of Miami included building a sample lighting prototype to help visualize the interactivity. Further, the process from box design and construction to fixture brightness and method of control had to be resolved by the designers.
The installation seeks to engage the visitors and promote a sense of community through “group interactivity and high-tech playfulness”. Colours vary according to the time of day, and the scale of the “pixels” corresponds to the visitors’ distance from the box. The visitors’ “reflections” are of accurate scale and proportion so that they can easily recognize the forms as their own.

Project team:

Installation artist: Ivan Toth Depeña
www.ivandepena.com
Lighting design: Focus Lighting Inc., Brett Andersen and Dan Henry.
www.focuslighting.com