Be part of an art + bike phenomenon on June 9.
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 riding into a swarm of hundreds of red lights that slowly synchronize until they are all flashing in harmony.
It’s not a dream, it is happening on June 9!
Production is in full swing for artist David Rueter’s Kuramoto Model (1000 fireflies), a project that will provide 1,000 custom-built bike lights to people who attend Northern Spark on bicycle. Inspired dually by certain species of fireflies and mathematical theories of synchronicity, these lights communicate with each other via radio signal and promise to transform the experience of biking in a group.
To see for yourself, meet at Father Hennepin Park at 11:45 pm for a midnight ride across the Stone Arch Bridge with all of the Kuramoto lights on the night of Northern Spark.
How can I get a Kuramoto light?
A limited supply of lights will be available at the Info Tents and tables in each festival zone on the night of the festival. If you don’t want to chance it, make a pledge to the project’s Kickstarter campaign by June 2 and reserve your light for pick up before June 9.
A daytime test of two Kuramoto light prototypes on the Stone Arch Bridge
The first two lights with the final design.
