New by the Urban Alliance

With art having embraced Banksy and his take on urban art we have seen everyone jumping on the bandwagon and giving it that modern stencil graffiti look. It has meant a debate on how we change urban spaces and use the space as a canvas. But we are now in a digital age, and this concept has been embraced in the city centres by advertisers but what advances have we made with the subways and alleyways?

Here is hopefully the answer to our prayers? Media architecture collective Urban Alliance has recently finished the Moodwall: a 24 meter long interactive light installation in Amsterdam.

The Moodwall is situated in a pedestrian tunnel and interacts with people passing by, improving the atmosphere in the tunnel and making people happy and feel less unsafe, something which is a problem in our cities at night in the UK.

The interactive urban wallpaper is built out of about 2500 leds behind a ribbed semi-transparent wall. The curves in the wall make it less suitable for grafitti and improve the visibility of the content for the side.

The resolution is horizontally stretched so the images of the screen are better for the side so people are stimulated to watch the screen from outside the tunnel. This prevents the tunnel to become a hang-out spot.

I love this and would love to see this embraced by towns and cities which are striving to give young people a place they can be proud of. What about you, fancy this in your town?