Aarhus by Light - An experiment in socially engaging media facades

In the winter of 2008, the concert hall of the danish city of Aarhus was augmented with an interactive media facade, engaging local citizens in new kinds of public behavior in order to explore new possibilities of digital media in urban life. The large glass facade on the building was fitted with 180 square meters of semi-transparent LED screen that was distributed in a non-rectangular pattern behind the surface of Concert Hall Aarhus towards to adjacent public park. Visitors in the park were met with the spectacular view of animated creatures crawling around the structure of the glass facade along with a constantly moving outline of the skyline of Aarhus. When visitors walked through the park, they passed through three interaction zones marked with coloured carpets. Once on the carpet, a sensor picked up the outlines of your body and hereby creating a silhouette on the screen. This silhouette encouraged a curious and playful investigation of the expression among the users, while enabling them to interact with the creatures by pushing, lifting and dropping them.