Typically, an artist completes a piece and spectators observe it, but a collaboration between Janet Echelman and the creative director of Google’s Creative Lab Aaron Koblin makes spectators a part of the final work. Unnumbered Sparks is an interactive net sculpture that spans 745 feet between buildings in Vancouver that passersby can control via their smartphones. According to the project’s technology video, the entire piece is basically “a distributed website on the sculpture,” or a bunch of web browsers working together to manipulate light, sound, and movement.
This massive floating web is art you can control from your phone
The physical net is made from a material similar to fishing line that’s 15 times stronger than steel, and five projectors map a screen and lights onto the sculpture from below. Spectators connect to the project’s Wi-Fi and a browser will open on their smartphones that lets them draw art that will appear on the sculpture. They can control colored lights to move them around the ropes, and ambient sounds will come out of each smartphone’s speakers, creating a visual and audible show. Unnumbered Sparks debuted for TED’s 30th anniversary, and will later travel to other cities around the world.
Photography courtesy of Ema Peter
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