green|spaces and Glass House Collective are bringing an interactive-light project called The Pool, created by sculpture artist Jen Lewin, to neighborhoods Highland Park, East Chattanooga, and East Lake, April 21-30. The installation here will be featured by the world-renowned artist as a global showcase project.
“We are very excited to be a part of the Chattanooga community and especially these neighborhoods,” said artist Jen Lewin.
“In the ten years we have been traveling the world with this installation, we’ve never had the opportunity to work with organizations like green|spaces and Glass House Collective and get deep into the communities and really interact with neighborhoods.”
Made up of 40,000 LEDs on 106 computer-powered 3-foot discs arranged in concentric circles, the piece activates when someone steps on the pads, setting in motion colored light effects. Dance on a pad, and it will create hula-hoop swirls around you. Sprint from pad to pad and ribbons of light will trail you. Step on certain discs and the entire piece will change color. It’s meant for people of all ages to play and allows multiple users to collaboratively create patterns of shifting colors and light.
“People think about energy through light and since we are now in our second year of the Empower program, we wanted to have a fun, interactive, educational experience in the neighborhoods where we are helping residents save money on their energy bills,” said Dawn Hjelseth, development director for green|spaces. “We feel The Pool represents bringing a community together - pooling people together to create a really amazing experience. We can’t wait to see what ideas each neighborhood has to make The Pool experience unique to their own community.”
Music and dance performances, physical activities (such as yoga), and sideline activities (such as art projects for kids), and more are all possibilities for those types of experiences. Ideas can be shared at upcoming community meetings taking place on:
Monday:
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Good Neighbor Network meeting in East Chattanooga at Glass House Collective (2501 Glass St.) at 6:30 p.m.
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Community Action Group meeting in East Lake Senior Citizens Center near 3244 15th Ave at 5:30 p.m.
Monday, Feb. 13:
The Pool will be on display each night (approximately 7:30-10:30 p.m.) in the following neighborhoods on the following nights:
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April 21, 22, 23 - East Chattanooga at the Harriet Tubman site
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April 25 & 26 - Highland Park Commons
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April 28, 29, 30 - East Lake Park
The Pool in Chattanooga is made possible by green|spaces and Glass House Collective along with other generous sponsors and supporters including Lyndhurst Foundation, Public Art Chattanooga, EPB, ArtsBuild, Allied Arts, Glass Farm Block Leaders, Good Neighbor Network, Highland Park Neighborhood Association, and East Lake Neighborhood Association.
Since its debut in 2008, The Pool has been on display in 33 cities and 12 countries around the world at venues ranging from SXSW in Austin, Texas, to the Vivid Light Music & Ideas festival in Sydney, Australia. The installation will be traveling from Hong Kong Arts Festival to Chattanooga.
Based in New York City, Jen Lewin has been creating large-scale interactive light, sound, and motion sculptures for 15 years. For more information on the artist click here.
Empower Chattanooga's, a green|spaces program, goal is to help residents and organizations in a community consider how energy use and affordability of utilities affect broader challenges. Over the past year and a half, data shows that for people who attend an Empower-sponsored Basic Energy Efficiency Workshop and use the free Energy Savings Kit provided by EPB, see an average utility bill savings of $400 over a seven month period. For more information about Empower click here.
Founded in 2012, Glass House Collective is working to bring life back to Glass Street and Glass Street back to life. GHC has been working to make Glass Street more clean, safe and inviting through artist-led and community-involved projects to help revitalize East Chattanooga’s Glass Street.