Living Light

Living Light is a permanent pavilion in a public park that exchanges text messages, and glows according to air quality and public interest in the environment. (http://vimeo.com/35982543) This building facade of the future is a giant map of Seoul that glows and blinks according to both air quality and public interest in the environment. First, each neighborhood lights up if its air is better than a year ago. Second, every hour the map goes dark and the neighborhoods light up in order of best current air quality to worst. Third, citizens can text the pavilion with a postal code, receive a message back with that neighborhood’s real-time air quality, and cause the neighborhood on the map to blink. The pavilion becomes a register of our collective concern about an important urban and personal issue. The more blinking, the more collective concern. And once people text in a request, the building becomes a contact in their phones, offering a new framework for human communication with buildings. Through the pavilion, citizens participate in a low-resolution public discussion about the future of the environment.