Lumens, an interactive light installation by Matthew Belanger, Sean Riley and Ven Voisey. I served as the project manager.
Lumens re-connected North Adams and Adams — originally a single community — through an exploration of location, influence, history, and the present.
A project of “Networked Realities: (Re)Connecting the Adamses,” Lumens was an installation of lamps networked across three spaces: Greylock Arts, MCLA Gallery 51 Annex, and Turbulence.org. Scores of personal lamps that usually inhabit and illuminate the interiors of homes and shops were borrowed, from the residents of Adams and North Adams, Massachusetts, filling two gallery spaces: Greylock Arts in Adams and MCLA Gallery 51 Annex in North Adams. In addition to the lamps, the personal stories and histories that accompany the lamps were also collected. These were represented in a virtual gallery on turbulence.org, which also served to connect the two locations telematically.
As artist Matthew Belanger described, “as an individual wanders through the gallery space, clusters of lamps illuminate in response to their presence and simultaneously illuminate lamps in the counterpart spaces. It’s in this way that an individual in Adams can communicate his/her presence to an individual in North Adams, and vice versa.” Additionally, as visitors investigate the history of a particular lamp online it will also illuminate in the physical gallery space.
Lumens was also a part of DownStreet Art: A Celebration of Art in North Adams. DownStreet Art highlights the abundance of art in the city of North Adams with the creation of seven new galleries and the marketing of over twenty art destinations.
“Networked Realities: (Re)Connecting the Adamses” was a collaboration of Greylock Arts, MCLA Gallery51, and Turbulence. Lumens was made possible through the generous support of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. with funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the LEF Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Projects of Networked Realities: (Re)Connecting the Adamses includes:
June 2008 Arduino Workshop with Tom Igoe
July 2008 Illuminated Art Workshop at Mass MoCA’s Kidspace
July 2008 Lumens, an interactive light installation by Matthew Belanger, Sean Riley and Ven Voisey
Oct.. 2008 Touching Gravity 2/Tilt by LiquidBody MediaDance and World Music of Nana produced by Topia Arts Center
Dec.. 2008 Domain of Mount Greylock — Video Portal by David Lachman
Dec. 2008 Recollecting the Adamses – A Collective Storytelling Project – Marianne R. Petit Dec. 2008 New Adams.es
Marianne R. Petit 