From the very beginning, the idea was to represent the duality between reason and imagination, an important factor in the creative process in engineering. This duality is symbolized in various ways in the artwork. For example, it was meant to show that technical building hardware could be arranged in an esthetical manner. As such, the design team restricted themselves to the same components – pipes, anchors, electrical boxes – typically used by the university construction department, complementing these components with LEDs and smart control for a vibrant lighting of this otherwise drab concrete space.

The animation of lighting creates routes of running light blobs through the tunnel. Since the lighted tubes share the space with actual electrical and HVAC pipes, the lighting dynamics gives the impression of flow of useful elements (electricity, network data, air) in the building. A microphone is hidden in an electrical box at the center of the tunnel to allow interactive control. When users blow in an opening in this electrical box, the flow of light is accelerated, a symbol of the contribution of engineers in such technical systems.

The artwork was designed as an innovation platform, for students to add elements to the installation in the future, allowing increased interactivity. This platform was successfully tested in 2015 by a team who created a luminous tug of war game in the tunnel, with players using their mobile phones as a controlling device.

See it in action: