Light Terrain – Dlectricity Installation 2012

LOCATION: DETROIT
YEAR: 2012

RogueHAA’s DLECTRICITY submission, Light Terrain, was one of the 35 installations chosen of 225 global submissions.  Light Terrain was installed on the southwest corner of Woodward and Warren, across from the Wayne State University Welcome Center.

Terrain Vague.  Ignasi de Solà-Morales defines terrain vague as land in a “potentially exploitable state but already possessing some definition to which we are external,” or “strange places” that “exist outside the city’s effective circuits and productive structures.” Detroit is an often cited characterization of Sola-Morales’ concept, yet these “strange places” are typically understood as either unacceptable results of economic decay, or as sites of optimistically unrealistic potential divorced from the realities that created them. Our installation sought to bring a more nuanced approach to Terrain Vague that both recognizes the realities of urban vacancy while maintaining the possibility inherent within. By creating a space for interaction and conversation, our installation attempts to both literally and conceptually establish a provisional ‘ground’ for interaction among DLECTRICITY viewers that strikes a balance between planned and spontaneous, solid and void, architectural surface and landscape

Light Terrain. Comprised of an articulated landscape of varying light sticks, the installation catalyzed interaction through the application of a responsive architectural skin (membrane/layer/field) to the existing building and ground conditions. Like a luminous synthetic ivy, the installation expanded across the site in an organic field both defining new spatial potential and enhancing the existing context – literally and conceptually tying architecture to landscape.