In September 2020, the team decided the era of the cubes had come to an end. A new generation of team IGNITE was brought together. For the past one and a half years, this new generation of 15 enthusiastic students has created a new mission and vision for the team. This new stance is proudly presented this year through “Ballroom,” an installation realized with the tracking infrastructure provided by the TU/e Crowdflow Research Group from prof. dr. Federico Toschi, with dr. Alessandro Corbetta. The installation is developed together with Philip Ross and his experience with designing light installations for crowds; one can recognise several aspects of his work “Gibson” (2018) in “The Ballroom”.
The social cohesion between individuals in public spaces has decreased during the pandemic. Through our light artwork “Ballroom”, we from team IGNITE investigate reigniting the feeling of social cohesion amongst the GLOW visitors. We invite you to experience our modern “Ballroom” situated in “de Markthal” on the TU/e campus. This installation does not only offer the possibility of dancing with each other, but also to dance with twelve shining dance partners, embodied by beams of light, gracefully in search of a partner to dance with on the music of the student orchestra of Quadrivium. The visitors are anonymously tracked based on infrared imaging, so the light beam chooses its dance partner on the fly. This happens in real-time thanks to state-of-the-art sensing system and algorithms provided by the TU/e Crowdflow Research Group. The light beam will move around its chosen dance partner so that a dance between the two begins. The result is an actual ballroom festively filled with color, music, and dance. Enter the Ballroom and experience the long-expected feeling of connectedness again.
