Love Circuit

Love Circuit is an interactive installation piece that was made to encourage New Yorkers to engage with each other in a physical way. I completed this project along with Eric Jiang, Umi Syam, and Yihan Zhou while at Parsons The New School for Design. The Love Circuit was installed in Washington Square Park in New York City in October 2014.

How it Works
The installation utilizes a human circuit, which, when connected, turns on a sound and light display. We placed two, four-foot poles with conductive spheres on top of them about 5 feet apart - just far enough so that one person cannot reach them both to connect the circuit. When two people hold hands and hold one of the polls, the circuit is connected and the lights and sound play. 

Inspiration
We observed Washington Square Park for a few days and noted that although many people share the space with each other, they don't tend to engage with the people around them unless they came with them. We created Love Circuit in the hope that it would get people in Washington Square Park to get out of their comfort zone and maybe talk to people they didn't come to the park with.

Process
After some exploration, we decided to use a product by Gadgiteration called the Noise Maker which has the functionality to create a human circuit. We then worked in the wood shop to create the stand for the heart and the two polls. To attach the circuit to the polls, we purchased drawer pulls that were conductive and attached two, 10 ft wires from the noisemaker circuit to the two polls. 

We then cut two large, 4 ft x 5 ft pixelated heart out of foam core, spray painted them red, and attached them to both sides of a box that we affixed to the third poll. We then incorporated multi-colored LED lights into the circuit and wrapped them around the inside of the heart. 

Findings
Overall, we found the project to be a success! Visitors to the park ended up engaging with the project and each other in a different way. People were somewhat worried about the human circuit shocking them, but once they saw others trying it, they became less afraid. We noticed that people were more wary at night and in Union Square Park where we initially tested the installation.

Music by LCD Soundsystem and Alumo.