ThoughtBalloons is a theatrical piece set into a black glass surround. Sensors locate where people sit and place a thought balloon above their head.

The texts are created with the help of the local community, including humorous conversations, informative repartee, both arbitrary and targeted statements. The thoughts are kept fresh and lively through workshops and a website.

Staplefield is located in the Central Park Recreation Center at the heart of the Denver, Colorado neighborhood of Stapleton. Hanging in the central atrium of the building, its visible from all around. It acts as a dynamic model that mirrors the state of the building and its occupancy. An array of sensors locate movement in the various parts of the Center and software translates and choreographs that information back into an animated 3 dimensional illuminated field.

Each vertical column is made of triangular armed circuit-boards with LEDs at each end. These multicolor LEDs can produce any hue or intensity the software requires. When there are only a few people at the center the piece sparkles in their direction. When all parts of the center are populated and active the piece becomes fully animated.

At the top of the piece mirrored arms both hold up the columns of LEDs and conceal motion sensors that detect the movements below. Multiple sensors fire together to help generate a coherent animation within the piece as a whole.

photo by Frank Ooms

http://thoughtballoons.org/

14THST is a public sculpture that’s part of the 14th Street Initiative in downtown Denver.

Optical instruments dot the length of the street, embedded in buildings, bicycle racks, lamp posts…

The series of optical instruments from different eras are re-purposed to combine views of the existing street with narratives and projections of the past, present and future.

Nestled in planters by benches…

Sticking out of bicycle racks…

Each artwork is made of a series of modular cartridges that can be adjusted or changed as needs arise.

Working with the community we identify locations and stories that we combine into a ‘treasure hunt’ of 36 artworks.

• Single texts, non-sequitors. (These are for single people, but also can be inserted into conversations of 3 or more people?)
• Conversations, where nouns and verbs can be replaced:    Mad_Libs
• Conversations in which ‘events’ are inserted, according to a witty repartee…
• Conversations in which ‘pre-calandered events’ are inserted, such as mother’s day, xmas, Independence Day, etc. They begin and end on certain dates.
• ‘Events’ could be added by staff and deleted by event-date. So a person inserts an event text and the date the text should stop broadcasting.
• Probably some other type of text, conversation, that we don’t know yet…

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Types of thoughts can change depending on how many people are sitting down:

• 1 person shows
• 2 person shows
• 3+ person shows.

In 3+ person shows the text randomly goes between anyone sitting down without repeating the last person.

A ‘show’ is a sequence of texts, shows are responsive to who is sitting down. For example – one person sits down and a show plays for 1 person, then another person sits down, the existing show plays out, then a 2 person show starts to play… etc.

Originally, we had thought there would be only two modes — single and 2+, but that may not be good enough.

We proposed two pieces:
Thoughtballoons is located at the entrance corridor, creating an interactive dialog with people as they wait for others.
Staplefield is located in the atrium, which is in the center of the space, visible from several locations. It acts as a dynamic model that expresses the state of the building and its occupancy.

Click on images for larger views.

ThoughtBalloons is a theatrical piece, set into a black quartz stone surround. Cameras locate where people sit and place a thought balloon above their head. Hidden behind black glass are illuminated screens.

Another rendering of Thoughtballoons.