Each summer for two weeks in early June tourists flock to Smoky Mountain National Park in Tennessee to witness one of the natural world’s magic shows: thousands of synchronized, blinking fire flies. Photinus carolinus, are the only species of “lightning bugs” in America that can sync their flashing light patterns, according to the National Park Service. Some […]

Be certain to get your Kuramoto Model bike light by supporting David Rueter’s Kickstarter campaign for Northern Spark and join us on a midnight ride of synchronized light across the Stone Arch Bridge.

Imagine riding your bike through the darkened streets of Minneapolis on a warm summer night and coming upon another cyclist with a red blinking light. Alright, that isn’t hard to envision—most cyclists have flashing tail lights. But imagine that upon approaching said bicycle, your light and its light begin to blink in unison. Now picture […]

What: Northern Spark Bike Community Happy Hour When: Thursday, March 29, 4-6 pm, presentation at 4:30 pm. Where: Midtown Greenway Coalition at the Freewheel Midtown Bike Center, on the Greenway between Chicago and 10th Avenues What kind of free beer: New Belgium Brewery Why? This year we are promoting cycling as the primary mode of […]

This year, we are thrilled to be partnering with Midtown Greenway Coalition during Northern Spark.

Greenway Partnership from Northern Spark on Vimeo.

Janaki Ranpura and her team are hard at work constructing The Peloton! This interactive biking project takes its participants on a stationary ride through a South Minneapolis neighborhood. What do I mean by a stationary ride, you might ask. Ranpura asks visitors to pedal on the bikes within this incredible structure to generate the electricity […]

The Kuramoto Model (1000 Fireflies) will distribute 1000 interactive blinking LED devices to bicyclists who attend Northern Spark 2012. The devices are outfitted with microcontrollers and radio units that allow them to mutually and observably synchronize with others, as do certain species of firefly. In isolation these devices look similar to conventional LED cycling safety […]

We had a soggy start to the LynLake Street Festival today, but our hearty volunteers stuck it out in the rain with us anyway.  Here they are, sporting the Kuramoto Model lights, corsage style. Thanks Isabel, Birdie, Angie, Sarah, and David!     

Ride nice at Northern Spark! We’re excited to be working with Nice Ride, the Twin Cities bike share system to encourage cycling as a primary mode of transportation for this year’s festival.  We’ve marked the Nice Rice bike docks nearest to all the festival projects on our maps (mobile app, too) for easy navigation.  For […]

 “I like to think that I’m making a kind of social interstice, and that something like Guy Debord’s dérive might simultaneously play out for thousands of people in Minneapolis on June 9.” Read all of David Rueter’s interview about The Kuramoto Model on the Huffington Post.