Jacques Cartier Bridge: Living Connections

“Living Connections” is an interactive public art installation that uses a live data stream in Montréal to regulate up to 500 lighting points that illuminate the city’s Jacques Cartier Bridge. Thinkwell Studio Montréal is one of seven multimedia and lighting studios that collaborated on “Living Connections” for Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc., in celebration of Canada’s 150th and Montreal’s 375th anniversaries.

Each local collaborator made a unique contribution to the initiative. Thinkwell Studio Montréal conceived the idea that big data should modulate the bridge’s lighting points and led the development of the data collection, integration programming, and unique software via SENS.ei Data that brought the project’s vision to life. The proprietary SENS.ei Data system allows remote monitoring and control of live data from a variety of sources.  

The Thinkwell Studio Montréal team created the idea that big data should serve as a modulator for the bridge lighting program, so as to inextricably link the spirit of Montréal to the illumination. SENS.ei Data collects information from traffic radars, bike sensors, microphones plus cameras monitoring the color of the sky, and integrates reports from OCI sourced across social media and online news through the tracking of various keywords and hashtags. For every particle of light on the bridge, there is a specific piece of data determining how it is expressed (color, brightness, direction, etc). The lighting patterns on the Jacques Cartier Bridge are meticulously informed by big data gathered by Thinkwell Studio Montréalsoftware SENS.ei Data in real time.

The project was led by Moment Factory alongside other collaborators, all of whom brought something unique and indispensable to this project: Ambiances Design Productions, ATOMIC3, Ombrages, Lucion Média, UDO Design.