Sound sensing “spiders,” attached directly to individual glass panels in the Grand Lobby, transform the façade into what the artists call “urban sensors – instruments to sense the city, visualize its auditory pulse, and amplify its latent energies into cascades of swarming light.”

Real-time data collected from these audio transmitters drive the direction and color of the swarming algorithm, which generates patterns of streaming light. The result is an artificially intelligent facade: a smart surface that can sense, compute, respond and interact with its surroundings. Lightswarm’s unique suspended light modules individually change their intensity and color. Each module was created from 3D printed components, custom electronic elements, addressable LED strips, and laser-cut skins made out of recyclable PET plastic and synthetic paper.