Countless messages have been shared across long distances, expressing love, care, concerns, longing and hopeful expectations. Unfinished farewells, unplanned retreats, simple day-to-day things suddenly reappreciated. Certainty about uncertainty. Public life lived from home, while the empty streets wondered: “Where and how is everyone?” Hearing From You imagines a fantastic reality where personal messages of appreciation escape the confines of people’s minds and electronic devices to take over the city, covering it with atmospheric, heartwarming lighting, and a blanket of daily life poetry.

Reflecting on the year that passed, and wishing a happy new one, takes a whole new meaning after 2020. We communicate more than ever - and at the same time less than ever - in a perpetual state of collective loneliness. Life shared visually through social media is heavily curated. We appear happier or more miserable, depending on the image we want to create or the feelings we wish to hide. Only through words, exchanged privately and regularly, we can stay truly in touch. Countless messages have been shared across long distances, expressing love, care, concerns, longing and hopeful expectations. Unfinished farewells, unplanned retreats, simple day-to-day things suddenly reappreciated. Certainty about uncertainty. Public life lived from home, while the empty streets wondered: “Where and how is everyone?” Hearing From You imagines a fantastic reality where personal messages of appreciation escape the confines of people’s minds and electronic devices to take over the city, covering it with atmospheric, heartwarming lighting, and a blanket of daily life poetry. Just like urban life unfolds secretly through dark, empty laneways such as Mills Lane, Hearing From You visualizes the space as the hidden emotional pulse of the city and its people. It displays messages of gratitude and kindness, in our continuous struggle to "stay in touch" and positive during dark, strange times. Inspired by the works of Jenny Holzer and designed and executed by Luke Hespanhol and Yuxin Huang of The University of Sydney’s Design Lab, Hearing From You features multiple LED displays scattered across Mills Lane showing fragments of personal messages expressed by or to the artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collectively these fragments come together to tell a touching real life story in the form of deconstructed urban poetry.

https://vimeo.com/526829091

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Details

Project artist/ concept/ design/ planning : Luke Hespanhol & Yuxin Huang

Structural engineering : Partridge

Facade design : Luke Hespanhol

Light design : Luke Hespanhol

Display content/ visuals/ showreel : Luke Hespanhol & Yuxin Huang

Project co-ordination : Luke Hespanhol

Project sponsor/ support : Willoughby City Council

Descriptions

Kind of light creation : The displays bathed the laneway in a red glow, alluding to a heart beating blood and therefore life, still pulsing amidst the pandemic.

Urban situation : The work was installed at Mills Lane, a quite laneway in the suburb of Chatswood, Sydney, Australia. The choice of location was related architecture to content, displaying personal messages on a hidden and underutilised thoroughfare..

Description of showreel : Photos and videos of installation in Chatswood, Sydney, Australia, during Lunar New Year 2021.

Participatory architecture & urban interaction

Community or communities involved : The work was exhibited during Lunar New Year at Chatswood, a suburb of Sydney with thriving Asian culture, particularly Chinese. Messages were written in three languages: English, Chinese and Portuguese, reflecting the languages spoken and exchanged by the artists.

Host organization : The Willoughby City Council

Tools used : Type of display: 100x20cm Full Color Outdoor Scrolling Programmable LED Sign Number of units: 20

Mediacredits

Luke Hespanhol

Luke Hespanhol

Luke Hespanhol

Luke Hespanhol

Luke Hespanhol

Luke Hespanhol

Luke Hespanhol

Luke Hespanhol