Alexander Brandt

Lichtspiele (2013, HD video, sound, 04'29")

There is a building in Shanghai that puts on a free light show every night. I did nothing but film this performance.
The facade of this building is exposed to the traffic noise of a big intersection. Each apartment is equipped with a smart sound sensitive light switch, yet obviously, no-one has thought about how they would interact with the city. Each roar of an engine, depending on its volume, will trigger more or fewer lights on the facade to turn on.
In an unpredictable manner, the grid of lights is ever changing. During red lights, when the noise level is dying down, the timers turn the lights off - one by one, and just as you think the whole building will go dark, another noise restarts this game and without knowing it, each passing driver becomes a participant in this light orchestration.
Related Exhibitions:
2013 Chinalizing the West, Shanghai
2015 Shanghai Urban Space Art Season