A Proposal for VIVID LIGHT Sydney 2015: Lighting Sculpture / Installation
‘Witness’ turns a familiar lamppost into an animated character that actively engages people to play with its spotlight. The lamppost becomes a street performer with a curious disposition. Designed after an existing surveillance lamppost at Circular Quay, the ‘neck’ of the post becomes alive and curiously follows people with its spotlight. But it is a playful performer that also likes to provoke people by dancing around in front of them with its spot of light, and quickly escaping their pursuit to look for other passers-by.
‘Witness’ performs the gaze of an intelligent surveillance camera, but it only looks for its own pleasure.
Underneath the familiar surface of a lamppost, ‘Witness’ is an autonomous robot that turns the ‘neck’ of the post into a flexible appendage carrying a spot light and a camera to track the movement of the audience. Its custom Artificial Intelligence software generates the behaviours to express the lamp’s searching, looking and playing.