iGlow is a thirty-six-foot-long glowing lavender tunnel composed of faceted surfaces perforated by parametrically warped holes. Visitors walking in the tunnel appear, from the outside, to be warped into pixels as they pass through. Analog bodies in motion project digitized images through the tunnel surface via a combination of light, distance, and surface-to-void repetition.
iGlow is the brainchild of Hiroshi Jacobs, founder of HiJac, a Washington DC-based design collaborative. It originally appeared in Georgetown Glow -Washington’s answer to Festivals of Light more common to European cities like Florence, or Lyon. Georgetown Glow lasted one week, and iGlow was destined for the recycle bin.
...light, tunnel, action.
We’re not sure who had the idea first but simultaneous light bulbs went off at HiJac and Dupont Underground: IGlow belonged deep in the hidden tunnels of the Underground. This past weekend we made it so. An intrepid group of ten assemblers, led by Hiroshi, dragged the disassembled iGlow to the southern terminus of Dupont Underground -1000 feet from the nearest entrance - and rebuilt it in the darkness of the abandoned streetcar tunnel. Here it took on an entirely new character; perhaps a technological worm, or the train from the Wong Kar-wai movie 2046, zooming through a post-apocalyptic Hong Kong. The segmented structure of the streetcar tunnel surrounding the segmented structure of iGlow complement and heighten the effect of each, throwing light and shadow in an entirely new way.
if you build it they won't come. but that's okay.
Unfortunately this installation will not be seen by the public any time soon, it is too deep and remote to access. Special guests to the Dupont Underground, after signing waivers, can go on small group tours, but the installation will remain an insider exclusive until Dupont Underground finds enough funding to make its deepest tunnels publicly accessible, which will take many years. In the meantime, we have some pictures…