Design

Literature Versus Traffic
by Luzinterruptus

Editor-at-large

14 September 2012

Spanish lighting designers Luzinterruptus scattered 10,000 glowing books across the ground at Federation Square in Melbourne this summer for a lighting festival dedicated to reading.

Entitled Literature Versus Traffic, the installation was designed to resemble a river that winds along the pavements and roads of the busy public square.

The designers sourced the discarded books from local libraries and placed LED lights behind the pages of each one to illuminate the printed words.

Over the course of the month they were also able to gradually move the books into different configurations.

On the final day visitors were invited to choose a few to take home, while others were donated to passing drivers through open car windows.

“The objective was to create a symbolic gesture in which literature took control of the streets and became the conquerer of the public space,” explained one the anonymous artists.

The installation remained in place throughout June for the Light in Winter lighting festival. Reading was the theme, so the organisers had asked Luzinterruptus to create a scaled-up version of a similar installation they had completed in New York.