Create a visible ripple effect as you move within this dazzling interactive infinity room by Japanese collective teamLab, producing your own unique wave patterns influenced by your gestures, movements and speed. For their new installation at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, entitled ‘Moving Creates Vortices and Vortices Create Movement,’ teamLab took inspiration from the ocean and all of the ways in which the currents and flows of water are altered by objects and environmental conditions.

This video shows off the stunning effects as a lone visitor makes her way through the room. You can see as each of her steps results in a flurry of tiny light particles that transform into lines and then form patterns, ultimately joining together into the vortices referenced by the name. The faster she moves, the stronger her ‘force’ is exerted upon the waves.

“If a person is not moving or there are no more people, no flow will occur and nothing will be present in the space,” says teamLab. “Works are born and continue to transform under the influence of people’s movement.”

“In the ocean, complicated terrain such as an island produces flow velocity difference and a vortex is generated. Vortices swirl up the carcasses of organisms sunk to the bottom of the ocean, producing nutritious seawater. This becomes a source of nutrition for plankton to grow and nourishes the sea life. Vortices therefore contribute to enriching the ocean.”

Anyone who visits ‘Music Festival, TeamLab Jungle’ this summer will get to immerse themselves in a space made of light, interacting with moving beams to help produce collaborative crowd-sourced music. ‘Light Chords’ is one of three ‘4D’ light-based installations the Japanese interdisciplinary group has planned for the event, all of which represent a unique intersection of art, design, technology and nature.

‘Light Chords’ aims to create the sensation of being inside a massive musical instrument, touching the ‘strings’ to produce a sound and hearing it reverberate all around you. The beams of light rise into the sky when touched and then settle back down to be activated again.

The second 4D space, Light Vortex, places visitors at the center of a surreal light show that bends and stretches around the space, while ‘Light Cave’ builds complex light-based architecture over attendees’ heads.

Known for their use of illumination as an artistic medium and for a focus on interactivity, TeamLab brings their ‘Music Festival’ to various cities and spaces each year, with different experiences to be had by day and by night. Before dark, TeamLab Jungle is designed as a music festival for families, while after dark it becomes more like a dance party with BACARDÍ-sponsored bars.

The ocean already makes music of its own, but in one Croatian town, its natural sounds are enhanced with the help of an interactive jetty-turned-instrument called ‘Sea Organ.’ Created by architect Nikola Basic in collaboration with engineers, craftspeople and a musical professor who tuned all of the pipes, the 230-foot installation on the coast of Zadar emits a constantly-changing concert of harmonic sounds with the flow of wind and water.

A system of polyethylene tubes and a resonating cavity are disguised beneath a set of marble steps leading straight into the Adriatic Sea. The channels connect to 35 organ pipes, and each set of steps containing five pipes is tuned to a different musical chord. As waves and the wind push air into the pipes, they create a haunting chorus of sound. The rougher the sea, the louder and faster the music.

The Zadar-Morske Orgulje, as it’s known locally, is also topped with an interactive display of LED lights that seem timed to show the movement of the water under the marble. This 22-meter-diameter, disc-shaped solar-powered installation called ‘Sun Salutation,’ also created by Basic, only serves to make the music of the sea even more magical.

Images via Flickr Creative Commons: linssimato, J We, Suzanne Hamilton, EyeofJ

As beautiful as a display of fireworks can be, they’re passive: viewers are just viewers, rarely having a hand in the actual design of the show. But a project going on right now in Vancouver called Vectorial Elevation allows people around the world to light up the city’s sky with a customized light show, all from their own computers. Commissioned for the 2010 Winter Olympics, the installation began transforming the city’s skyline on February 4th and will continue until Sunday the 28th.

“This website includes a virtual model of Vancouver where you are able to design “light sculptures” with 20 robotic searchlights located along English Bay. Once you are happy with your design you submit it together with your name, location and dedication or comments. Every night from dusk to dawn new designs are quietly rendered sequentially as they are added to a queue.”

“The project automatically creates a personal webpage for each participant, documenting his or her contribution with views from 4 project webcams. With a 15 Km visibility radius, the installation intends to blend the virtual space of the Internet with one of the most emblematic public spaces in Vancouver.”

Using the Google Earth plug-in, users view Vancouver in 3-D with an overlay of the project’s models, markers and controllers. The interface allows the participants to select and direct individual searchlights and move virtual cameras to capture the action. All of the users’ requests are sent wirelessly to the command center in Vancouver in the form of x, y and z coordinates. Those who don’t want to wait in line to take an active part in the lighting design can watch each evening’s shows live on the Vectorial Vancouver website.

Previous versions of the project have taken place in Ireland, France, Spain and Mexico starting in 1999. The first, developed for the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City’s Zócalo Square, drew over 800,000 participants from all over the world.