Swarm Street by Acconci Studio
"As you walk through the tunnel, as you cycle through, a swarm of fireflies – above you, below you – gathers around you & lights your way; one sparkle attracts another, like a magnet…" explains Vito Acconci, founder of Acconci Studio based in New York City. "When someone passes you, when someone comes toward you, some sparkles veer off in a different direction, and a new flock of fireflies emerges."
A thousand LED-lights are embedded below, in the pavement; another thousand, almost, are installed within an open steel-framework above you. As you walk through, as you cycle through, you activate sensors that turn on lights that swarm around you as you move. Each sensor informs its neighbors, so that lights start to turn on as you approach them & start turning off as you move further away.
Vito Acconci is one of the most important figures in art and architecture working today. From his days as a poet in the mid-1960’s, to his groundbreaking performance works of the 1970’s, and finally to the founding of Acconci Studio in 1988 to realize architecture and public-space projects, Acconci has pushed from one discipline to the next while always thinking about language and the boundaries of the body. Seminal public projects include Mur Island, 2003, Graz, Austria, where the studio designed a floating island that houses a theatre, cafe, and playground. (Portrait by Richard Kern.)
For more information, see the media release from April 28, 2011.
