PIXELS

PIXELS

Site-specific art installation commissioned by Medway Council 
Chatham, Kent UK 
Feb, 2023

For our largest public art piece to date, we took over Mountbatten House, a towering disused office block that dominates Chatham Town Centre - looking out across the river Medway. PIXELS is a site-specific art installation that transforms urban environments with light, colour and sound. PIXELS takes empty, unused buildings and repurposes them to create huge scale canvases for bold, playful public art that can be seen for miles around.

208 windows were individually lit & programmed to create a 6 minute display completely transforming Mountbatten House, which has been standing empty for over 20 years. Mountbatten House is an icon of the local area and means a number of different things to a number of different people. It is impossible to be indifferent towards the building due to its size and how it commands the skyline. The building itself inspired us - its history within the area, its cultural significance, its shape and size. Our aim was to share both the inspiration and the excitement the building has given us through art that is accessible for all.

The purpose of PIXELS was to show people how art can completely transform places, and how culture can reimagine skylines, towns and entire cities. By turning grey, dull buildings into bright, colourful beacons of hope - we want people to see the importance of supporting the arts and creativity, and the role it plays in imagining a better future. Encouraging people to view their environment differently - to think about the possibilities of the places and spaces they interact with, outside of their obvious uses, and how this has a positive impact on both people’s emotions and attitudes towards a place they may be used to experiencing in a different context every day.

The installation saw the Pentagon Centre completely transformed in washes of bright light and bold colours  - visible from all over Chatham and the Medway town. The iconic wall of windows of Mountbatten house were illuminated from within, each of the 208 windows became single pixel within a giant low res video screen. The animation, created in collaboration with Zak Norman / Black Box Echo, displayed a mesmerising visual show which moved across the building, animating the inanimate and bringing it to life. PIXELS is a message of joy and hope, vast in both scale and impact - illuminating both the town centre and the river. 

PIXELS was a last hurrah for Mountbatten House as we know it, it is currently undergoing refurbishment as part of Medway Council's transformative regeneration project for Chatham.

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