stevenberlinjohnson.com: Why The Bay Area Needs The Bay Lights

For a few months now, I’ve been talking to my new neighbors here in California about my old friend Leo Villareal’s proposed epic installation on the Bay Bridge, commemorating the Bridge’s 75th anniversary and the completion of the new East Span in 2013. You can find more about it here, including some great visualizations, but the shorthand description from the promotional site is this:

Created with over 25,000 energy efficient, white LED lights, it is 1½ miles wide and 500 feet high... The Bay Lights is a monumental tour de force seven times the scale of the Eiffel Tower’s 100th Anniversary lighting.

There’s been a lot of buzz about this project, and it seems like it has a very good chance of being made thanks to the $3M challenge grant they’ve received. This would be terrific news. There’s no question in my mind that The Bay Lights would become an iconic example of grand urban art: a digital-age Gates or Wrapped Reichstag. Visually it will be intoxicating, I have no doubt. But I think there’s an important element to The Bay Lights that makes it uniquely appropriate to the Bay Area context. Leo is an environmental/algorithmic artist. Leo’s installations are, literally, programs. There are many interesting artists tinkering with software and human interfaces now, but most of their work lives on the screen or in a browser. Leo’s code lives outdoors, on a grand scale. He writes software for cities, not screens.

So I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the bridge at the heart of the Bay Area than with an immense work by one of the most acclaimed algorithmic artists of our time. The world capital of code should have a coder/artist as its Christo. Let’s make it happen.

The Basics

I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of eight books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej68 at gmail dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

My Books

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.
The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.
The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.
Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!

Comments

Yes! I grew up in the Bay Area in the 50s and early 60s, so I have a certain nostalgic about that area. I love the idea of the Golden Gate Bridge being the icon of the day and the Bay Bridge the icon of the night.

Posted by: Marie | March 16, 2012 at 09:46 PM

This isn't a good place to ask, perhaps, but I've been looking for some kind of schedule that shows where you are giving talks. I'm going to be in the Bay Area in a couple of weeks and would be remiss if you happened to speak at a nearby event and I didn't know.

Posted by: Sweet Sassy Mo | March 18, 2012 at 02:00 PM

This sounds really good. I'm just in Los Angeles so I look forward to the completion of this project.

Posted by: Ps3 Repair Service | March 19, 2012 at 04:44 PM

It's beautiful. Maybe something for Rafael Lonzano Hemmer ? See his vectorial elevation.

Posted by: Blaise Zerega | March 20, 2012 at 03:19 PM

Leo’s code lives outdoors, on a grand scale. He writes software for cities, not screens.

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