We’ve all felt the energy of a packed dance floor, but at one Brazilian nightclub, you can actually see it.
At São Paulo’s club The Year, LED lights suspended above the dance floor react to sensors that measure the crowd’s temperature and movements. The DJ has his own body sensor. These biological signals are then transformed into a light show:
This is how it looks with a crowd:
https://www.facebook.com/theyearsp/videos/vb.817272281690917/963346100416867/?type=2&theater
The point is to turn the whole club into an extension of dancers’ bodies, says the designer behind the installation, Guto Requena Estudio.
Guto Requena is a Brazilian architect and former researcher at the Center for Interactive Living Studies of the University of São Paulo, which focuses on the relationship between virtual and real spaces. In his own studio, Requena has also been experimenting with the use of technology to turn human emotions into something you can see or touch.
In another project, he asked people to talk about love while wearing voice, heartbeat and brain activity wave sensors. Special software used those signals to create a digitally-printed object.
Requena’s studio also designed an interactive bar in São Paulo, where guests are asked to post how they feel on Twitter and Instagram using hashtags. The hashtags are then projected on the wall and transformed into music. The most prevalent emotions are conveniently charted as well, for those struggling to get a read on the mood of the room.