The River

The River, a light sculpture. The River is an array of laser cut acrylic sheets illuminated by 72 LEDs animated based on the analysis of sound samples recorded along the Singapore River.

A group of 2nd year Interactive Art students from LASALLE College of the Arts, namely; Adam Aw, Benjamin Low, Jacky Boen, Mithru Vigneshwara, Mui Rui Yi and Zac Ong, together with their lecturer, Andreas Schlegel created The River for the 2012 iLight Festival held at the Marina Bay, Singapore.

The River is created in celebration of Asia's only sustainable light festival and also in accordance with the theme of "Light Meets Asia". Focusing on the idea of "Light as Life", the concept of the artwork is based on the conclusion derived from weeks of discussion, that the Singapore River is a really appropriate representation of Singapore as a growing nation through how the Singapore River has similarly transformed over the years.

Process

A custom electronic circuit has been designed to animate 72 LED lights. The animation is based on sound recorded along the singapore river. Through custom designed software these sound samples have been translated into an array of numbers which serve as the source for the brightness of each individual LED. Software and hardware have been built using the Arduino platform. LEDs are controlled by 5 16bit LED-drivers, data is stored on and read from a SD card.

The structure holding 24 laser-cut acrylic panels has been custom build using wood as material. Approximately 300 meters of wires have been used to connect the 72 LEDs to the electronic circuit. In total the installation requires 8 Watts to be powered.

The River was exihibted at the iLight Festival 2012 in Singapore and at the SIGGRAPH Asia 2012 Art Gallery (acm article)