Light sculptures at Columbia Center

The light sculptures are set in three different lobbies within the Columbia Center, Seattle. Colors and patterns change according to either the current time or the outside weather. Every hour the installation chimes like a grandfather clock and offers a more dynamic and interactive addition to the building’s other artwork.

In this project, we developed software driving these installations. Each installation has a Processing sketch generating images and sending data to LED tubes via Art-Net. The Processing sketch chooses a video clip according to the weather and adjusts the speed and color of the video to match the temperature and wind speed. The Processing sketch also acts as a web-server, so that lobby managers can use the web interface to play special clips for festivals and events.

*The project was built in collaboration with ESI Design.