Revealing our body heat in three-dimensional space through experiential illumination, “Thermally Speaking” used thermography and infrared measuring instruments to uncover the fields of energy of which we’re all part of. The responsive installation transformed Toronto’s Fort York Visitor Centre for Nuit Blanche 2019, providing a glimpse into a future of body temperature readings, creative data visualization, and surveillance fields.

Audiences were invited to move through, over and around the ramp of the Visitor Centre both as observers and subjects of observation, participants in dialogue with the phenomena around them. Thermal imaging cameras relayed and translated the heat energy of visitors into a shifting curtain of light, animating the channel glass facades of the existing building. Designed by LeuWebb Projects and produced in collaboration with Mulvey Banani Lighting as part of their CITYLights Toronto initiative, the installation also provided an opportunity for technical development for students in the field of lighting design and architecture.

LeuWebb Projects is a multi-disciplinary public art collective based in Toronto, Canada. Mulvey & Banani Lighting is an award-winning lighting design consultancy based in Toronto, Canada. The existing base building, the Fort York Visitor Centre, is an award-winning project designed by Patkau Architects with Kearns Mancini Architects Inc. and was completed in 2015.