The agency Scholz & Volkmer asked me to create an interactive light installation for their big 16 jubilee party. The motto was “Berühren”, which is german and means to touch or get in touch.

The idea was to let the guests control the outside light of the party. We had several DMX controlled RGB LED lights and two huge 1800 Watt City Color lights placed in the outside area of the party which were all connected through a DMX cable.
The user interface were two metal plates which had the shape of a hand. If you touch both of them you close the circuit. But they were placed that far apart that you can’t touch them for yourself. You had to find another guest to close the circuit with, which supported the motto “Berühren”.

If a guest closes the circuit there was a current which I used as the input value for the interactive light installation. It was my only information given. The cool thing is that the guest can play with it. If you have dry hands for example or you just touch the metal with your finger tip the current is pretty low. If you have wet hands and fully touch the plate the current is getting higher.

I developed two applications. One for the smaller lights placed around the party and one for the two City Color lights each placed under a tree. If a guest closes a circuit, the low pulsating green light below the metal plate flashed up. In the case of the City Color installation the light turned from a green to a bright pink, coloring the whole trees and the party to an artificial color.
The second set of hand-plates controlled the RGB lights. If someone touched them they were flashing up and cycling through a nice color scheme. If they released the plates the light dimmed down and stayed at the chosen color.

Unfortunately I don’t have any video footage or pictures of the party. There are only pictures from developing and testing the installation.