An interactive pavement turns a new public plaza into the stage for one big impromptu musical ensemble. River Lines is one of two Daily tous les jours pieces commissioned for the Gaslight District in Cambridge, Ontario, as part of the developers’ vision of creating “Joy Experiments”—public realm interventions designed to foster community through play.

Anchoring the publicly accessible courtyard of the district, a wave-patterned interactive pavement, embedded with 62 light rings and sensors, becomes an exercise in musical collaboration. With different musical instrument sections assigned to positions across the pavement’s surface, players connect the dots to create arpeggiated clusters of notes that harmonize along with the playing of others to make one rich tapestry of music. A large screen overlooking River Lines plots the players’ movements on an animated map for everyone watching. Keeping the site a multi-functional space was a key consideration when designing River Lines. For concerts and movie nights, the artwork is turned off and blends in with any special event. River Lines introduces an innovative approach to communal engagement within public spaces, reimagining urban infrastructure (pavements!) at the service of the human spirit, fostering playfulness and musical collaboration. Because strangers need strange moments together.

https://www.dailytouslesjours.com/en/work/river-lines

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Details

Building or project owner : HIP Developments

Architecture : The Planning Partnership

Project artist/ concept/ design/ planning : Daily tous les jours

Descriptions

Kind of light creation : The artwork sets a 15x15 m creative space in the city’s largest public plaza. The concrete pattern, stenciled by a sandblasting method made on site, includes 62 custom light sensors and responsive light rings, and 12 custom audio tiles. Music emanates from the ground as if by magic. Twelve in-house tailored audio tiles were developed to have no visible hardware and blend into the pavement pattern. The entire piece is made to resist outdoor conditions and is suitable for permanent installation. A diagonal central axis represents the high-water mark of the 1974 flood. A special soundtrack is created around this axis, underscoring our dependence on the natural world with a moment of magical synchronicity that results from the players’ cooperative efforts.

Urban situation : River Lines shifts the city’s attention back to its long-neglected waterfront, its design and musical score highlighting how for more than a century the river has been central to the rhythms of community life. River Lines tells a story in which the city’s past and present overlap, using the river and historical floodline as thread.

Participatory architecture & urban interaction

Community or communities involved : Developed through research, interviews and engagement workshops with the local community and stakeholders, ‘River Lines’ is a response to the historical nature of the site and demonstrates how investment in the public realm is essential to reimagine and activate places, and to encourage collective interactions.

Host organization : HIP Developments

Issues addressed : - community binding in new developments - solitude - wellbeing

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