Triangular Series

Client: Design Miami/ Basel

Triangular Series is a site-specific lighting installation composed of numerous, truncated tetrahedral forms. Each object is an individual. They can sense each other and the physiological rhythms of beings beneath them. Aliens of a sort, their respiration is a movement of light. Like the cells in our hearts and the clocks on our walls their rhythms affect each other through the process of entrainment. The result is an emergent, undesigned dance of light from the ceiling swarm and triangular projections below.

Growing on the boundaries of human movement paths, they interact with the cohabitants of their space. Walk beneath them and you become part of a new, syncopated dialog—an autonomic communication with the other.

Each form in Triangular Series is programmed as an independent, synthetic organism with digital senses, internal respiration, and luminous ‘breath.’ The forms communicate with each other through the process of entrainment—they are in a constant process of synchronization and disruption. Via specialized sensors in each form, this rhythm is in dialog with the motion of people walking below. The largest tetrahedral can sense the heart rate of an individual standing directly beneath it. The form synchronizes with the individual’s heartbeat, and then spreads their pulse through entire installation.

Triangular Series was commissioned by Design Miami/ Basel and debuted June 16th, 2014 in Basel, Switzerland.∎

Selected Press: Creator’s Project, Artsy, Dezeen, Wallpaper* 

Special thanks to Jon Moeller, Allison Wood, Jimmy Tran, Michael Adkins, Carl Albrecht, Luna Chen, Alexandra Cunningham, Alexander Dawson, Manuela Donoso, Jamie Gray, Gwylim Johnstone, Dwayne Jones, Dev Joshi, Pat Lian, Jeff Lieberman, Kyle McDonald, JB Michel, Dan Moore, Julian Oliver, James Patten, Kevin Perkins, Chris Sardi, Omer Shapira, Phillip Stearns, Katie Treidl, Bill Washabaugh, Theo Watson, Laura Wickesberg, Design Miami/, ExpoMobilia, Novoglas AG, Dark Matter Manufacturing, Bl, oooshiny, and the MIT Media Lab.

Thanks to Perspex for supplying the Spectrum LED 1TL2 acrylic used in the Design Miami/ Basel installation.