Developer Abby Stillman wanted to rebrand a 1960′s office building in Washington, DC. He sought out architects Meejin Yoon and Eric Howeler, who proposed an interactive installation that spilled out from the lobby to the sidewalk.

The result is an installation called Low Rez Hi Fi; the first half of the name refers to three LED display screens and the second to a grove of stainless poles that create sound when touched. These pieces transformed a spacious but otherwise drab sidewalk into an interactive field of sound and light that responds in different ways to people in a public space.

Parallel designed, manufactured and installed the Low Rez LED screens in 2006. We were then asked to complete the unfinished sound grove in 2007

  • Eric Howeler checks out his digital shadow.

  • Patrick Gavin TIG welding the steel vitrine frame

  • Steel base parts

  • Painting the steel structures at Ainslie Street.

  • The module parts - flex circuit laminated to a 4 slide stamped heatsink with thermally conductive tape

  • Paul Paradiso and Lakpa Sherpa assembling modules

  • Assembled and conformal coated pixel modules

  • Firing it up. Blue blue blue!

  • Testing reflective backing materials with our LED net.

  • Details of base, showing power supplies and wire tensioners.

  • Patrick testing the strands. The wires are gold plated.

  • In the shop prior to packing.

  • Some of those peanuts ended up blowing around Washington. Antistatic ones are pink.

  • Removing peanuts probably.