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Video: Group Wants To Install "Silent Lights" Underneath The BQE
By
Jen Carlson
Published Dec 21, 2011
Modified Dec 21, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Dec 21, 2011
Modified Dec 21, 2011
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There have been grand ideas about cleaning up the BQE in the past, but so far only Sufjan Stevens has managed to help its image at all. Now the Artists Build Collaborative is going to give it a shot, and after winning a $5,000 grant from the NYC Department of Transportation, they've just launched a Kickstarter campaign to further help their mission out. The group hopes to bring an interactive, and colorful installation, called Silent Lights, to the Red Hook section of the roadway.
They explain, "It is a project that takes large amounts of traffic noise at a busy intersection in Brooklyn, New York and repurposes it into an incredible, interactive light installation. Silent Lights is an architectural series of gates that frames a pedestrian pathway by day showing constant movement through shadows. It transforms sound into patterns of light at night as it mimics movement with led lights, reflecting and interpreting movement and sound. There are no blind spots, the path is always lit and each gate responds to create a dynamic installation. Cars drive by, microphones pick up the sound from traffic, a computer processes the sound and triggers each gate to light up sequentially. As noise increases, the light from each gate intensifies."
Beneath the BQE, especially in Red Hook, can get pretty dark—so we fully support this... even if we're still holding out for a Venice-style canal.
Tagged
art
bqe
installation
kickstarter
red hook
silent lights
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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