Art & Technology #33: Umbrellium

Interaction between Art, Technology, and Life

Near-Magic Technology

Incredible transformation takes place on London’s Exhibition Road, passed by numerous cars. As soon as a person takes a step to cross the road, a crosswalk suddenly appears on the ground. When the person makes it to the other side of the road, the pedestrian crossing disappears. This unbelievable “magic” was realized by Umbrellium, a London-based team of architects, designers and technologists, through their project <Starling Crossing> (2017). Regarding this project, architect and Umbrellium’s founding partner Usman Haque stated the following in an interview with the <Dezeen> magazine:

“Technological advancements entirely transformed the urban landscape surrounding human life, but interestingly, crosswalks have remained unchanged over the years. The pedestrian crossing that we know hasn’t really been updated since the 1940s, and these days we inhabit our cities in quite a different way. Our relationship to the city is very different. The pedestrian crossing is one of the most complex moments of interaction that almost everyone experiences on a daily basis. However, pedestrian crossings as we know them today are antiquated methods of urban interaction suited to urban scenes of the past, so the team updated the zebra crossing for the 21st century.”

On Umbrellium’s newest project: <Starling Crossing>

<Starling Crossing>, an interactive pedestrian crossing in the most contemporary style, was designed so the embedded LED switches on and off. True to Haque’s description that it is “beyond graphic design,” the LED crosswalk is as beautiful as lighting art found in exhibition galleries. It also shortens the time required to design and map out roads because Umbrellium’s crosswalks do not fade over time like painted crossings. Surface of the roads are constructed with high-impact plastic that can withstand the weight of large crowds and vehicles, and programmed LEDs are built-in in this interactive road. Two cameras that can measure and record hundreds of variables monitor the roads 24/7 at multiple angles, and information collected through the cameras is sent to a computer system. The time it takes for these information and numbers to reach the system is a mere hundredth of a second.

<Starling Crossing> adjusts the crossing as it responds real-time to various conditions and different time frames of the day. In other words, the crosswalk changes patterns depending on the number of pedestrians or circumstances of the road. Haque explains, “When there are few pedestrians in the early morning, say 5am, or in the middle of the night, the crossing might only appear as somebody needs it. It is programmed to be used as vehicle-only road at downtimes. However at peak times when the roads are crowded with cars and lots of people trying to cross, the crossing can actually widen automatically to accommodate all these extra people. Composition, width, size, orientation, markings and colors change according to time and situations. There are built-in red lights to signal danger, and stop lines or remaining driving distance to the stop line can be adjusted to maintain a certain distance between pedestrians crossing the street and vehicles on the road. To decrease accidents at crossroads, <Starling Crossing> even takes note of potential dangers and sends warnings to pedestrians.

True Objective and Mission

Umbrellium has been interacting with the public through projects including <The Burble>, which won the team the Design Museum London’s Design of the Year Award in 2008, and the 2014 project <Assemblance>, which drew attention at London’s Barbican Art Centre. The team presented installation art that recognize movements of the human body, works involving illuminating gloves, and projects that map out population density using noise level measurement. Through such projects, Umbrellium encouraged direct participation of the public and brought forth changes in our daily lives. Umbrellium’s ultimate goal is to examine the relationship among people within and outside the boundaries of its work.

One of the major missions of today’s societies is to utilize creative diversity of technology to bridge cities and humans and also to increase direct participation of citizens in civic projects. Umbrellium has been successfully fulfilling this role with its resources—from the team’s own hardware and software systems that utilize various technologies such as 3D printing and laser projection to engineering, production networks, and infrastructure that brings all these together. Not only that, the team is constantly searching for future vision on what art, design and technology can do to facilitate the relationship between humans and urban areas as tools for contribution to neighboring communities. Furthermore, Umbrellium employs interactive art as a method of in-depth research on new, cutting edge technology. Expectations are high for the upcoming projects of Umbrellium, a group which not only demonstrates how art responds to the needs of our society but also studies the interaction between technology and humans. ■ with ARTINPOST

Art & Technology #33: Umbrellium

Near-Magic Technology

On Umbrellium’s newest project: <Starling Crossing>

True Objective and Mission

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