An interactive analog installation, interjects in the flows and paths of the daily urban commuter.
a design and installation by
Carson Smuts, Noa Younse and Jenny Hiser
"Neural Alley", is an interactive analog installation that interjects in the flows and paths of the daily urban commuter. On either side of the alleyway hangs a canvas of pixel blocks. Each make up a larger image that spans the depth of the alley. These images start off by depicting arteries of the Tennessee river and evolve over time through interactions with the passers by.
An intuitive and flexible design that encourages curiosity and creativity.
People are free to move the pixels from one wall to the other. Much like our own sensory neurons which respond to touch, sound, light and all other stimuli, the pixels blocks respond in a vicarious manner through the physical and visual interaction of passers by.
Fluid Pixels
On either side of the alleyway hangs a canvas of pixel blocks. Each make up a larger image that spans the depth of the alley. These images start off by depicting arteries of the Tennessee river and evolve through interaction over time.
Crafted Locally
Each block was hand crafted on site and made by the community. The intention was to create an event during the making of Neural Alley that enables community engagement.
Temporal Art
Tension between the two sides of the alleyway (the two images) is temporal and fluctuates depending on the number of people passing through the space. People will act as the only conduit between the two.
The images are filtered over time. This image filter is not based on an algorithm like a digital image filter, but rather by an aggregation of chance events that may take place when a passer by wonders through this spatial conduit. The result is a spatial fuzzy logic.
Event Space
An unforseen result of this installation was that it created a color backdrop for photos (selfies). A backdrop that indviduals could manipulate and for a brief moment in time take ownership of the art. This led to many an event been held here. From hosting Santa Claus, catering as a temporal movie theatre, to the backdrop of wedding proposals.
Digitized Memory
This temporal art was catalogued over a 6 month time span. In order to achieve this 8 special optical blocks were installed along with the rest of the blocks. These 8 optical blocks scanned, digitized and archived the evolution of the pixel image in realtime.
The digitized catalogue was then made accessible to the public online.
The Digital Archive
You can explore the archived art in the panel below.
"Click and Drag" over the pixel images.
Photo Gallery
Below is a gallery of images people have shared on the internet that capture some of the unique artworks and moments they created with the Nerual Alley installation.
