Memory Cloud is an Ethereal Animated LED Installation at Texas A&M

<a href="http://uart.tamu.edu/sculpture-competition-winner" target="_blank">Memory Cloud</a> is a living sculpture that uses multimedia technology to collapse time and space in order to celebrate tradition for <a href="http://www.tamu.edu/">Texas A&amp;M</a> students. Composed of an ethereal network of 4,000 LED nodes, the lights flicker on and off to create an animation of silhouettes that appear as figures walking through a cloud. The winning commission was awarded to <a href="http://resitestudio.com/" target="_blank">RE:site</a> and <a href="http://www.metalabstudio.com/" target="_blank">METALAB</a> by Texas A&amp;M University for their new student center. The LED installation will be installed in the winter of 2012 and serve as a reminder of both the past and present.

Memory Cloud is the winning design for a lighting installation in the new Memorial Student Center 12th Man Hall.

Designed by <a href="http://resitestudio.com/" target="_blank">RE:site</a> (Norman Lee and Shane Allbritton, Artists) and <a href="http://www.metalabstudio.com/" target="_blank">METALAB</a> (Andrew Vrana, Joe Meppelink and Michael Gonzales, Architecture + Fabrication), the project will hang in the atrium to create an animation of students, from the past and present, walking by.

The silhouettes animations are created from archived footage of time-honored traditions: the Corp of Cadets, the Texas Aggie Marching Band, Kyle Field traditions, and past graduations.

Additionally, Memory Cloud can convert a real-time feed of students passing by into a ghost-like version.

The sculpture is made with 4,000 energy efficient and networked LED nodes integrated within transparent tubes of various lengths suspended from a diagrid framework.

This creates a vibrant, illuminated pointillist sculpture and a program controls which nodes are turned off and on and what time to display the animation.

There are 12 layers or rows of lights and each can be programmed with a different sequence. Viewers can see movement from a variety of angles and see dynamic figures running, biking, or walking by in a parade of university spirit.