In the wintertime, Vancouver is often a rainy, dark place and lots of people tend to hibernate indoors. Shine With Pride, an interactive lighting installation we created for the Jim Deva Plaza, acts as a beacon and brings people together to play — no matter how chilly or wet it is outside.

The West End BIA originally commissioned us to build this installation for their annual Lumiere Festival back in 2016 and now it is a feature piece in the festival each year, already enjoyed by thousands.

Shine with Pride consists of a platform you can step up onto with an array of 16 acrylic 10’-tall tubes, each with hundreds of responsive LED lights. When no one is interacting, the entire sculpture displays a soothing, pre-programmed animation all in white lights. As someone touches one of the tubes, though, it reacts with an energetic light movement in colourful hues. The more people that move around the tubes and touch them, the more elaborate and lively the display becomes.

We sought to create an installation that encouraged people to play together and also allowed them to experience the effect of their many hands working together to create endless combinations of vibrant light patterns.