LUMENS

An interactive light installation (re)connecting personal artifacts, histories, & communities.

Artists: Matthew Belanger, Sean Riley, Ven Voisey
Collaborating Organizations: Greylock Arts, MCLA Gallery51, Turbulence
Producer/Project Manager: Marianne R. Petit

Lumens was an installation of lamps networked across three spaces: Greylock Arts, MCLA Gallery 51, 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, their images and stories are represented on the Turbulence website, which also serves to connect the two locations telematically.

Clusters of lamps have been outfitted with proximity sensors and arduino microcontrollers. Lamps illuminate in response to a visitor’s presence and simultaneously illuminate lamps in the counterpart spaces. Thus, 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 (re)connects North Adams and Adams -- originally a single community -- through an exploration of location, influence, history, and the present.