Brillen en la Foscor is an interactive installation built by the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) for the LLUM BCN festival which is held in Barcelona, Spain, in February 2017.

Located in an enclosed patio in the Gothic quarter of Barcelona, the installation, an interactive audiovisual instrument, transforms the space through a musical performance based on citizen participation. From the narrow winding streets of the neighbourhood, the visitor enters the patio space and is invited to play with the strings of light, composing music melodies based on the citizen’s real-time interaction.

By pulling the interactive strings of light distributed around the patio, the user activates the different chords, which interplay with the melodic background sound. Piezoelectric sensors, located in the base of each string, capture the vibration from the visitor’s interaction, sending the information to the Raspberry Pi plata and then activating the speakers embedded in the digitally fabricated wooden islands, located at the base of the strings of light.

This mechanism creates a direct sound response to the user action. The strings of light are illuminated thanks to black lights located throughout the patio, making them inherently attractive to the curious visitor, who is invited to pass through the installation thanks to distribution and form of the digitally fabricated wooden structures – Island – that enclose all the technological elements of the installation.