Delighting spaces: towards a platform for animating pedestrian passageways.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20257388

A recent renovation at Northeastern University has left a vast network of tunnels pristine, over-lit and barren. A request for proposal has led to the development of a device which applies the philosophies of smart environments and installation art to make an immersive and beautiful information-space. The visual language is rendered by recoloring and reshaping the diffuse, overhead lighting or de-lighting the space. The mechanics behind the device collect local occupancy data and the visual language reflects an ambient display of accumulated usage of the passageway. The animation and activation of the space serves an aesthetic function that foreshortens the hallway experientially, while also provides an opportunity to re-perceive the oft-forgotton transitory space. Implications from this proposal illuminate a reconsideration of how designers might better contextualize lighting of interior urban spaces. The hurdles of implementing a novel medium, and the messages designed for them, are considered in respect to the sensorial product of the device. By overcoming the temporal occlusion of daily use in these passageways, patterns of use reflexively fuel a novel feedback loop for the pedestrian passersby.