Andreas Schlegel, Constellations

Constellations is a large scale mural installed alongside a staircase in the Youth Olympics Village during the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore. The art work is 5 meters in height and 13 meters in width.

Located at the common dining area, the staircase is widely used to go from the atrium to the main plaza in the village. Reminiscent of a pencil drawing with dark grey strokes against a beige background, the design of the mural is inspired by the idea of drawings of constellations through the depiction of clusters of stars connected via lines. LED lights which are installed at the intersections of these lines will light up when triggered by the movement of people climbing up and down the staircase.

The intention of this work was to create a constellation of LED stars that will fade in and out when certain motions are detected, thus resulting in light trails following people on the staircase like fireflies, star dust or shooting stars. Through the use of custom build hardware, movement can be detected on every step of the staircase which then translates into LEDs lighting up and fading out.

A short brief was given by the organizers and was based on the topic ‘Friendship’. Our artistic interpretation originated on the idea of chance encounters: An interactive mural that plays with the notion of chance encounters and temporary relationships of people in a public space.