Lumens

"Matthew Belanger is a New York based new media artist, programmer, and consultant. In 1999 Riley received BFA in Painting from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. V. V. (Ven Voisey) is a sound artist and sculptor from Oakland, California, currently living in North Adams, MA.

Lumens is an installation of lamps networked across three spaces: Greylock Arts (Adams, MA), MCLA Gallery51 (North Adams, MA), and Turbulence.org. Scores of lamps have been borrowed from the residents of Adams and North Adams to fill the two gallery spaces. Their images and stories are represented on Turbulence.org, which also serves to connect the two locations telematically. The lamps — which have been outfitted with proximity sensors and arduino microcontrollers — light up in response to a visitor's presence and simultaneously illuminate lamps in the counterpart spaces. Thus, an individual in Adams can communicate his/her presence to an individual in North Adams, and vice versa. Additionally, as visitors investigate the history of a particular lamp online, the lamp will light in the physical gallery space. Lumens re-connects North Adams and Adams — originally a single community." -- from Turbulence