KNOL has recently completed the ‘Transit Mantra’, a light- and sound installation in a bicycle tunnel. Technology is poetically integrated in the urban landscape to enrich the transit experience.
A symbiosis of beautiful design and an improved sense of safety, that is how the installation ‘Transit Mantra’ is best described. Since August 2013, Eindhoven has enriched the Dutmala tunnel with this interactive light and sound sculpture. It guides cyclists and pedestrians through the dark tunnel.
courtesy bart van overbeeke
The origin of Transit Mantra lies in the history of Eindhoven, a cluster of former villages fused into the city of today. The decentralized character of Eindhoven is still noticeable when passing through. Being in transit is therefore an important experience, which is now enhanced by the swarm-like installation. The experience of being in transition now becomes a pleasant moment of reflection. When people pass the tunnel, moving from A to B, elements react on the human movement. Velocity and number of passengers influence the behavior of the installation: it reacts differently on an individual walker than on a group of people on a bike.
courtesy bart van overbeeke
This leads to an always changing pattern of light and sound. The energy of the passengers together make the tunnel into a collective instrument.
Transit Mantra shows that technology can be aesthetic, innovative and functional at the same time. The functionality is specifically noticeable in the increased sense of security. The light trail of the last person in the tunnel stays visible for a while, so a lone passer is accompanied by the fresh past.
courtesy bart van overbeeke
Alderman of innovation, design, culture and public space Mary-Ann Schreurs was delighted by Transit Mantra, especially in these difficult financial times where projects like these are hard to realize. “In bicycle tunnels people always experience a certain unsafe feeling. If they see that others were just before them, this feeling decreases.”
The work that currently houses in the Dutmala tunnel is the start of a ‘transit mantra’ that will hopefully soon resound in more places in our urban landscape. It is the first permanent installation in public space by KNOL ontwerp, existing of Celine de Waal Malefijt and Jorien Kemerink.
courtesy bart van overbeeke
With their design they have won the Brains Awards in 2009, a talent prize for innovation and design. KNOL has fulfilled this title; in the past few years they have built up a special oeuvre in which technology is often poetically interwoven with our daily habitat. For the development and realization of Transit Mantra, KNOL cooperated with Armada Janse
(hardware) and Sioux (software).