Audiovisual Swarms

The Light Cloud at the Merck Innovation Center detects visitors’ movements in the room and translates them into many different moods. The generative sculpture stimulates and facilitates intense encounters between people and technology.

The room-filling installation consists of four curved strands that are concentrically superimposed and slightly shifted in relation to each other. OLED elements that are attached to the strands and controlled by sensors react to the visitors’ movements and to sound compositions. In combination, this generates a complex mosaic in which sound and light interact playfully and the viewers leave traces.

With ever-new patterns based on 18 variable effects, an unexpected dramaturgy unfolds day after day. Mirrors on the ceiling and walls multiply the light and create the impression of an endlessly reflecting transit space.

The light and sound installation was developed and realised by Tamschick Media+Space in collaboration with iart. In addition to planning and implementing the OLED installation, a key part of iart’s involvement was to develop a 3D real-time simulation. This made it possible to test different scenarios of operation while the system was still in development.