Rotating mirrored installation is an Instagram dream

What does walking through the city feel like to you? It’s a difficult thing to answer. Depending on the hour or the day, a city can feel dizzying or dazzling—at the very least, it’s constantly changing.

UVA

At A/D/O, a design incubator in Brooklyn, London-based practice United Visual Artists (UVA) is exploring that question through an interactive installation called Spirit of the City. UVA, known for its architecture-bending light installations, built a series of gleaming, gilded columns that look like a high-design fun house mirror.

UVA

The towers rise 9 feet into the air and spin around on a pedestal via a hidden motor. UVA pre-programmed the motion of the columns to reflect New York City’s activity over the course of a day. Depending on data streams like traffic flow or amount of energy used, the columns might be spinning slowly or frantically.

“Our goal was to create a simple, yet transformative experience that metaphorically and physically reflects the surroundings of A/D/O and New York City at large,” says Matt Clark, founder of UVA.

UVA

Indeed, the spinning columns catch light and reflect their surroundings to fantastical effect. Will the glimmering columns help people feel a deeper connection to the city? Who knows. What we do know for sure is Spirit of the City will make for a killer ’gram (just check out the A/D/O location tag).