bright nights
new york city, Dec 2006
for target´s christmas campaign with european design studio tord boontje, union square park was turned into a magic winter landscape for 4 weeks.
seven large floor projections in a row on the footpath of the park created a magical atmosphere and invited visitors to play with several interactive games featuring boontje´s signature designs.
a variety of twelve games alternates with fluent transitions on the seven fields. the elements spin and twirl around, float away from the wave of your hand, form a circle around you, invite you for pingpong or a snowball fight. the interactives are based on a sophisticated particle system mimicking natural and physical behaviours of up to 2000 elements in the video image. the motion of people in a projection area is interpreted by a custom-designed infrared object tracking software.
the installation was advertised around the city and quickly became popular and attracted many visitors to come back for several times. the open-ended game design and the fabulous atmosphere provoked kids and grown-ups alike to make up their own games and interpretations.
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