The Circuitry of Life

AV Projects | 26 Feb, 2015 | Comments Off 1742

If you’re in downtown Los Angeles you might notice that one rooftop looks a little different from before. What was an empty rooftop on an unremarkable building is now a four-story immersive exploration called The Circuitry of Life: A Journey Through the Evolution of Technology.

Artist Heather Shaw conceived and organized the installation, but needed the help of 40 designers, animators, engineers, musicians, interactive sound designers and music curators.

The team worked for a full year before The Circuitry of Life went live.

Audience members stand inside the cube, which consists of enormous structural screens, and experience an interactive show in five sections:

Face shots of audience members are taken early during the experience, then integrated into the show, establishing a customized and human connection

An exploration of the Industrial Revolution, in the context of how the transformation from an agrarian society to an industrial society paved the way for mass production and communication

Early film clips of the development of the integrated circuit, along with examples of its importance to radio communication, computer development and software and how it fundamentally changed human life over only a few decades

Exploration of the “information superhighway” and the shift of human life from a solely offline existence to online communication and relationships

Predicting the future of technology—a defacto singular consciousness held among all connected people. During this segment of the show, audience members are encouraged to touch the screen to demonstrate how interconnected everybody can be

Shaw, an LA-based futurist designer with over five years’ experience working with several A-list stars, conceived the project as an exploration of mankind’s progress from a segmented and separated species, to an interconnected community only a few steps away from a science fiction “hive mind.”