Two New Interactive Installations Created By Daily Tous les Jours

A new downtown district in Cambridge, Ontario, features two interactive artworks by Montréal-based art and design studio Daily tous les jours, bringing the previously uninhabited riverside neighbourhood to life through performance, music and light.

Located on the city’s outskirts in the emerging Gaslight District, the two installations, River Lines and Hello Hello, are specifically designed to address today’s challenge of how to foster community connection in brand new neighbourhoods, while creating new public realm that engenders local pride.

Developed through research, interviews and engagement workshops with the local community and developer HIP, the works offer a meaningful response to the historical nature of the site, overlooking Ontario’s Grand River, and are an exemplar of how investment in public realm is essential to reimagine and activate places and encourage collective interactions.

Hello Hello © Wilson Costa

Hello Hello © doublespace

Hello Hello © doublespace

Hello Hello © doublespace

Hello Hello © doublespace

Hello Hello © doublespace

Hello Hello © doublespace

Hello Hello © doublespace

Hello Hello © doublespace

The first installation, Hello Hello, is an interactive poetic messaging system at the entrance to the Gaslight District that transforms vocal communication into music and light. Inspired by the children’s game of Broken Telephone, passers-by are invited to deliver a greeting or message at one of three microphones at the base of the arch. Voices travel up and over the 13m luminescent arch accompanied by shafts of colour, transforming into a playful combination of visuals and sound. When voices from multiple microphones meet, they interact with one another to create a singular harmonic moment. The arch is framed by an impressive, sculpted façade, designed to reflect the movements of clouds and the lights.

River Lines © doublespace

River Lines © doublespace

River Lines © doublespace

River Lines © doublespace

River Lines © doublespace

River Lines © doublespace

The second installation, River Lines, is an interactive musical pavement in the centre of the Gaslight District, inviting people in the main square to take part in an impromptu musical ensemble. The wave-patterned pavement is embedded with sensors assigned with different instrument sections. By moving across the surface, the public can light up squares, and play different instruments, and notes, which automatically harmonize to create a rich orchestral tapestry. The pavement is accompanied by a large digital screen, plotting players’ movements, and offering visual cues, turning the public plaza into a stage for musical collaboration.

Daily tous les jours co-founders Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat comment: “The first step to community building is saying “hello”, and yet with society’s shift to online interaction, we are forgetting how important it is to greet each other and connect in person. By encouraging playful, day-to-day rituals, Hello Hello and River Lines experiment with new ways of igniting social interaction - helping to reimagine this newly created public realm into a lively place where people engage creatively with their surroundings and each other.”

Scott Higgins, President of HIP Developments, and developer of the Gaslight District said: “Using music, light and imagination, Hello Hello and River Lines play an integral role in the revitalisation and revival of the district, transforming it into a place of social interaction and play for urban dwellers. One of the most important jobs of a city is to facilitate joy and connection between its citizens, and Daily tous les jours have a fresh and experimental approach to creating these moments of shared joy that bring strangers together, and make them a little less strange.”

Both projects add to Daily tous les jours’ international portfolio of free, playful outdoor and interactive urban installations that have been pioneering the importance of play for all generations for over a decade.