Public art has its ups and downs: On one hand it can be a beautiful catalyst that helps develop a struggling community. On the other hand, it can cause quite a bit of controversy within that community (who exactly gets to choose these odd-ball installations? did my tax dollars pay for this?).
Chicagoans Seth Unger and Jack Newell look to give you the best of both worlds with their ongoing Kickstarter campaign, The Wabash Lights. They propose to install over 5,000 programmable LED lights underneath the elevated train tracks that run along Wabash Avenue in Chicago’s loop.
After four long years of negotiations with the Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Department of Transportation, and City Government, Newell and Unger have received approval to install a small section of lights as a Beta Test, in order to determine the exact logistics of such a large installation (temperature changes, vibrations from the overhead trains, interactivity, etc).
Once all the fundraising and Beta Testing is out of the way, the real fun begins: The Wabash Lights installation will be using LED lights that are easily programmable, with each light tube capable of being customized down to every 1.2 inches. Anyone (with a computer or cellphone) will be able to download a dummy-proof mobile app that will allow them to program sections of the lights – turning overlooked Chicago infrastructure into personal canvases.
They are roughly half way through their Kickstarter campaign and still short of their fundraising goal, so check out the page to donate and learn more!