credits Cinimod Studio, Mark Roberts Motion Control, Philips Lighting.

It is a given that light changes space, but in Walk The Light it becomes the visitor who determines that change in the lighting. Their movement through the Victoria and Albert Museum‘s Exhibition Road tunnel entrance directly controls this innovative lighting installation.

This experimental interactive lighting design project creates a band of white light that physically follows the visitor, forming a bright line of light tracking their journey. As one person passes, the white light jumps to the next arrival. Either side of the white band, washes of strong colour are pushed and pulled along the tunnel creating an ambient lighting effect that represents the overall ebb and flow of the day’s visitors. Throughout the day these colours shift in the hue and saturation as they respond to the prevailing direction of movement of the crowds.

Using a combination of technologies, including thermal camera tracking and Philips LED lighting mounted on a moving monorail, Walk The Light demonstrates lighting design’s increasing sophistication as it playfully – and beautifully — transforms the experience of arriving at the Museum.

Walk the Light is a site specific installation at the Victoria and Albert Museum commissioned for the London Design Festival 2012 and sponsored by Philips Lighting.