Unique Traveling Light Show Makes Pittsburgh Its First North American Stop

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A traveling show is making its first stop in North America.

And if you're passing through Market Square, you'll be part of it.

It's an interactive video and sound installation produced by a pair of media artists from England.

Kit Monkman and Tom Wexler dreamed up the light show, which they call "Congregation."

"What we try to do is create these events in public spaces," Wexler says, "which cause people to stop for a moment, and to reconsider their place in that space, and also their relationship to other people in that space."

"There's nobody controlling the piece," Monkman adds. "So all of the work is made by the people present. And the people present are whoever just happens to be passing by."

A projector at the top of a 120-foot crane will project light down into the center of Market Square. Those lights are attracted to body heat.

So at that point, the visitor becomes a performing artist.

Images created will appear simultaneously on a large video screen.

"The behavior of the system if you like changes over time," Monkman says. "People begin to learn techniques. There's often quite a difference between the first night and the last night."

The performers and the audience are one and the same.

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