Orchestral maneuvers in the square—an interactive pavement turns a new public plaza into the stage for one big impromptu musical ensemble.

Anchoring the publicly accessible courtyard of a new mixed-use development called the Gaslight District, a wave-patterned pavement embedded with light rings and sensors becomes a joyful exercise in musical collaboration.

Developed through research, interviews and engagement workshops with the local community and stakeholders, the artwork is a response to the historical nature of the site and is an exemplar of how investment in the public realm is essential to reimagine and activate places and encourage collective interactions.

Under the pavement, the river

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. Installed at one end of the Gaslight's inner courtyard—a multi-purpose event space that is also the city's largest public plaza—River Lines tells a story in which the city's past and present overlap, using the river and historical floodline as thread.

How

With different instrument sections (kalimba, piano, guitar, kora, harp, violin) 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 create one rich tapestry of music.

The central axis running diagonally across the pavement represents the high-water mark of the 1974 flood. If all of the players align on the floodline a special soundtrack is created for the moment, underscoring our dependence on the natural world with a moment of magical synchronicity that results from the players' cooperative efforts.

A large screen overlooking River Lines plots the players' movements on a colourful animated map for everyone watching.

Music emanates from the ground as if by magic. In-house tailored audio tiles were developed to have no visible hardware and blend into the pavement pattern. Their design resists outdoor conditions and is suitable for permanent installation.

Why

"In play there is something 'at play' which transcends the immediate needs of life and imparts meaning to the action. All play means something."
— Johan Huizinga, cultural historian

Our public spaces need more everyday opportunities for joy and play. Play is one of the things that brings us together—people drop their inhibitions, happiness hormones are released, and strangers spontaneously connect. As kids, it's through play that we learn how to negotiate and abide our differences—why can't that be the case for all stages of life?

We've also seen how such moments of play can even help drive a neighbourhood's revitalization, injecting life and social connection back into neglected spaces of the city.

River Lines is part 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'— fostering community through play in the public realm. The Gaslight District is a mixed-use development built on the site of a 19th century foundry that was the engine for much of the region's early industrialization.

Design Components

Located at one end of a multi-purpose event space, River Lines 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. The 12 custom audio tiles were created in-house and specifically for this interactive pavement.

The site features a jumbo LED screen overlooking the artwork and mirroring the musical interactions made by the passers-by. Keeping the site a multi-functional space was a key consideration when designing River Lines. For concerts, movie nights, the artwork is turned off and blends in any special event.

Materials: Stenciled concrete, 62 custom sensors & light rings, 12 custom audio tiles, centralized control equipment, jumbo LED Screen

Diversity, equity, inclusion

River Lines joins a series of collaborative interactive installations where we achieve more together than alone, fostering collective expression and cooperation between participants. Designed to bring strangers together in a spirit of play and creativity, no matter their age, their ability or the language they speak.

Many design details make that possible: the interface integrated to the ground surface, enabling feet, hands and wheelchairs to engage; multiple sensory stimulations—light, sound, tactile ground surfaces; simplicity of the interaction—just step on a dot to trigger notes and change its color, building on intuitive play of connecting dots to explore different visual and sound compositions. The screen interface adds another sensory layer to the experience for people with hearing difficulties, and onlookers.

Our methodology is based on designing for multiple levels of engagement: for the advance users who will find all the easter eggs and trigger secret modes, for the longplayer who will play for hours, for the ones who will just make a few steps and still trigger a few notes while passing by, and people just watching. We know that by engaging in physical play, the body releases stress and anxiety. So does just watching; seeing others acting silly and having fun also turns out to release our happiness hormones.

Why collective music + public space

Over the past decade, dozens of studies have been published that examine the relationship between music (whether played or experienced), the brain, and society at large. Neuroscientists have begun to confirm what anthropologists and psychologists have been saying for some time: that music often plays a role of "social glue", facilitating the ability of communities to come together, whether in times of mourning, commemoration, or celebration.

As the psychologist Jill Suttie writes, "playing music or singing together may be particularly potent in bringing about social closeness." Through the release of dopamine and endorphins, for example, group performances have been shown to facilitate social interactions and foster a sense of kinship between participants. There are even health benefits, through the collective release of stress and anxiety. By comparison, listening to music or playing music on your own produces a lesser release of endorphins than performing with a group.

Innovation

Daily tous les jours leads an emergent field of practice that combines interactive art, storytelling, performance, and urban design to reinvent living together in the 21st century.

River Lines introduces a fresh approach to communal engagement within public spaces, reimagining urban infrastructure (pavements!) to foster playfulness and collaboration, all in service of the human spirit. In an era marked by increasing solitude and inequality in cities, River Lines provides a platform for fostering positive, spontaneous connections between strangers. The more happy moments, the more trust is built between community members, and more resilience for whatever is coming.