14 DAY TRIAL // It's one thing to say that 3D printing technology can be used to produce light, and another to build an intelligent lighting system, but that's what you'll find at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco.
Lightswarm is a project by Future Cities Lab., an art studio founded by Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno back in 2002.
They wanted a lighting system that you couldn't easily get bored of, so they gave it the ability to listen to its environment and modify its activities based on the sounds.
Currently, the Lightswarm is “listening” to the sounds in the lobby of the YBCA and the city outside.
Custom electronic elements transform sound into visual patterns, so to speak, by constantly changing the intensity and color of the lights, based on “sound sensing spiders” attached to individual glass panels (just a fancy name for sensors really).
That means that you could suddenly stomp your foot and the light show will change because of it. Not that we advise such a course of action in the middle of an art center, but it's the principle of the thing. Then again, the sensors can hear normal footsteps too.
The video embedded below will show the Lightswarm in all its blinky glory. Try not to stare for too long though.
