SWARM STUDY / IX, 2016

LEDs, plastic diffuser, custom software, computer

Permanent Installation: Bahnhofstraße 1, 09111 Chemnitz, Germany
with Grüntuch-Ernst Architects

Swarm Study / IX inhabits the facade of the newly transformed Hauptbahnhof Chemnitz. The artists’ largest work to date, Swarm Study / IX translates the acrobatic efficiency of flocking birds into light. Each individual light source within the building’s facade has been imbued with collective behaviour. As the swarm moves throughout the face of the building, each light source acts according to its own set of criteria in relation to its neighbours. Since 2010, RANDOM INTERNATIONAL's ongoing Swarm Studies have been exploring the intelligence in motion of self-organising systems through increasingly dematerialised, sensory environments. Evolving from this, Swarm Study / IX invites an experience of architecture as something animate and integrated with surrounding natural phenomena and human activity.