Nine members of Students for Design Activism collaborated across fields of landscape architecture, architecture and computer engineering to design and deploy an interactive art installation as part of Northern Spark 2013.

Northern Spark is an all-night-long art event that occurs every summer in the Twin Cities, MN. The even draws tens of thousands of participants to look at art, experience community in a new way, and see the cities in a new light. Northern Spark starts at 8:58pm on June 8th and continues until sunrise on the 9th.

SDA’s project, titled Lower Course, was an interactive light installation that guided visitors from the urban realm around the Union Depot building in Saint Paul down to the Mississippi riverfront. Read more on the Northern Spark website.

Project Description: Lower Course: (n) the section of the river near the sea, where deposition is the most important process and the valley becomes wider and flatter. An installation of light and sound will connect the urban realm of downtown Saint Paul to its grand natural amenity, the Mississippi River. We are often unaware of our strong connection to the river and do not recognize how our actions upstream affect those downstream. We drink from the Mississippi and pour our waste into it, but it is a complex, beautiful, and living system. Lower Course collects you from upstream and sends you downstream, illuminating a new experience of the Mississippi along the way.

Check out the video below to see the students and project in action.