Arts District

Light City Installation to Remind Us That We’re All Connected

Communication Gaps creates visual conversation between strangers.

This year’s light and sound sculpture, which St. Pierre produced through his art and design studio GSP.studio, is more interactive as it requires the movements of two strangers across one of the harbor’s canals—the one between Pier 4 and Pier 5—for it to come to life.

Here’s how the installation works: When you reach its entrance, you’ll be asked to make a recording introducing yourself. Then, you and a stranger will stand on opposite ends of a canal and, based on how you dance, you’ll control the way the light from floating sculptures will travel across the water. And that introduction you recorded will be incorporated into the background sound, which your movements will control as well.

An intricate network of motion-activated software that St. Pierre programmed enables the installation to illuminate.

St. Pierre has put together a team of people—including renowned Baltimore musician Dan Deacon, who created the background music—to work on the project. (To see how you, too, can get involved, check this out.)

And perhaps one of the most important parts of the installation doesn’t have anything to do with light or sound, and is something you’ve likely encountered before—a nametag, which visitors will receive when they arrive at the installation. St. Pierre hopes festivalgoers will use this simple tool as a way to get to know one another at the festival.

“There’s this idea of, ‘Hey, I’m not a stranger to you. Talk to me.’ We’re all just in this together,” St Pierre said. “I hope people really walk away feeling they connected on a human level.”