Ascent – Bends, fractures, and blurs of the phenomenon of light
Created by London based studio Nocte, Ascent is interactive installation intended to blur and at the same time highlights its surroundings. Using nature as a basis for aesthetic, Ascent is a mesmerising sight of smooth lines and soft light – a sculpture that creates a harmonious relationship between human aesthetic and natural landscape.
The structure was built using 15mm aluminium profile cut to size and joined together with custom 3d printed joints. To fabricate the structure the team worked together with Wyliewood who helped us to push a relatively complex design into production. The wireframe structure was covered with 60m of RGB led strips, for this project the team used high density strips with 144 leds per meter for a total of more than 8500 pixels individually addressable. The strips were controlled using 4 Pixel Pusher devices, the signal ran over a network refreshing the strips at 60fps.
The core element of the system was a d3 machine which was used to control the installation, the dmx lights installed in the area and also to playback video content for the talks and other activities that took place during the event.
The team also developed a NodeJs server and integrated it with d3 to allows participants to interact with the installation using twitter and the #neverstopexploring hashtag. Tweets were filtered and collected in real-time to trigger an instant visual response of the lights, because the idea behind was to encourage participation, they decided to extend the interaction to any screen or lighting fixture connected to the system, so each tweet would triggered consistent visual effects across different mediums at the same time.
Commissioned by: The North Face for NightRay Outdoor Fest, Verdon France / 12th September 2015.
Credits: NOCTE (Design & Production), Octagon (PR), Wyliewood (fabrication), SpiaGames (on-site production), Sandra Ciampone (images & filming), Giorgia Polizzi (video editing), Fraction (video music)
