Gulf Tower Lights Set To Display City's Mood As Part Of New Art Exhibit
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Low-energy LED lights replaced the older version on top of the Gulf Tower a couple years back.
The colors of the lights continued the tradition of displaying weather conditions. But from Feb. 11-13, the lights will also reflect Pittsburgh's "mood" at any given moment.
Brad Stephenson of the Carnegie Museum of Art says the Gulf Tower Project precedes the Saturday opening of a museum exhibit called "Distant Feel."
"The Gulf Tower Project is connected to Pittsburgh Instagram images, and what it does, is it basically uses software to read the comments on Instagram images in Pittsburgh, and determine whether they're more positive in nature or more negative in nature. And we're using that to light up the Gulf Tower to show red for positive and green for negative."
Results will be shown online. The tower lighting and the exhibit depict the sharing of empathy in a "distant" way.
Artist Antoine Catala says his exhibit shows how technology has affected human interaction.
"People communicate through screens, and there's less and less human communication. And the interaction between people and how they feel toward each other is getting lost a little bit," he said.
His point is symbolized in a tower that will channel the mood of a city.
But those who get their weather reports from the Gulf Tower need not despair. The tower will still present five minutes of "weather lights" at the top of every hour.
To connect with the live Gulf Tower website, log on to http://tower.cmoa.org/
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