December 4th 2006, I had the pleasure of attending the opening of Bright Nights in NYC’s Union Square Park, an interactive light installation by world-renown Dutch-born designer Tord Boontje (you probably know his “Midsummer” lights for Artecnica of draped die-cut paper patterns). The event was put on by Target to celebrate the season and the creative collaboration with Boontje. He worked with Target on this year’s holiday campaign and created a fabulous line of exclusive seasonal products.
As with his work for the stores, Boontje has taken a much-welcomed (a personal, unscientific poll) nature-inspired approach to the season for the Bright Nights installation. As you walk through the park and under the trellised light installation, organic patterns of snowflakes, deer, prairie flowers, birds, swans, rabbits, and bullseyes react to your every move. Visitors have compared the experience to waking through wind-swept snow (the real-stuff was no where to be seen) and jumping through a field of flowers. I witnessed kids screaming with joy, dogs chasing the odd snowflake, and adults skipping and laughing through the installation (including myself). That kind of emotional connection is truly rare these days.
I would like to believe that part of the enthusiasm stirred by Tord Boontje’s work is due to the artistic connection he makes to nature. He even moved to rural France recently to be closer to his inspiration. Several of the installation’s algorithms seem to behave in a way similar to patterns seen in nature. All of the projections were organic in behavior, fluid and self-organizing. Perhaps people are reacting to it the way they are because it felt like they were interacting with something alive. Much of what modern people interact with every day is dead, compared to the fecund profusion of life we evolved in.
op.002 john moes
Bright Nights kiosk poster and Metro cover with pattern fly sheet.
Day and night photos of the Union Square Park, NYC installation.
> bright nights movie clip 1. Melting snow and magnetic bullseye.
> bright nights movie clip 2. Walking through a blizzard.
> bright nights movie clip 3. Long view of the block long installation.
> bright nights movie clip 4. Child’s play.
> bright nights movie clip 5. Self-organizing snowflakes.