Thermally Speaking

Revealing our body heat in three-dimensional space through experiential illumination, “Thermally Speaking” used thermography and infrared measuring instruments to uncover the fields of energy of which we’re all apart. The responsive installation transformed Toronto’s Fort York Visitor Centre for Nuit Blanche 2019, providing a glimpse into a future of body temperature readings, creative data visualization and surveillance fields.

Audiences were invited to move through, over and around the ramp of the Visitor Centre both as observers and subjects of observation, participants in dialogue with the phenomena around them. Thermal imaging cameras relayed and translated the heat energy of visitors into a shifting curtain of light, animating the channel glass facades of the existing building.

Designed by LeuWebb Projects and produced in collaboration with Mulvey & Banani Lighting as part of their CITYLights Toronto initiative, the installation also provided an opportunity for technical development for students in the field of lighting design and architecture.

Technical Sheet 

Official Project Name: Thermally Speaking

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Client: City of Toronto, Nuit Blanche

Artists/designers: LeuWebb Projects with Mulvey & Banani Lighting Inc.

Project Manager: Stephen Kaye (Mulvey & Banani Lighting Inc.)

Design team: Christine Leu, Alan Webb (LeuWebb Projects)

Collaborators Engineers: Paul Boken, Sepideh Nabaee, CityLightsTO

Lighting Designer: Mulvey & Banani Lighting Inc.

Project sector: Installation art, interactive, public art, lighting design

Project completion date: October 2019

Photographer: Doublespace Photography, Simon Tanenbaum

About LeuWebb Projects

LeuWebb Projects is a multi-disciplinary public art collective based in Toronto, Canada. Mulvey & Banani Lighting is an award-winning lighting design consultancy based in Toronto, Canada.

The Fort York Visitor Centre is an award-winning building designed by Patkau Architects with Kearns Mancini Architects Inc.