Blinkenlights Reloaded

The Matrix returns!

From December 22nd, 2003 to January 4th, 2004 there was a short revival of our Berlin installation: Blinkenlights Reloaded. Over the holidays, the Haus des Lehrers building - then still under reconstruction - was operated once more, just as we did it before.

Blinkenlights Reloaded used the technology we had developed for Arcade in Paris in 2002. That meant greyscales. Version 3 of BlinkenPaint supported this as well as our new movie file format BML.

As with the first installation, everybody could create their own animations and submit them by e-mail, and we brought them to life on the building. The interactive telephone services such as Pong and the Loveletters, however, were not offered during Blinkenlights Reloaded.

We were happy to be able to bring Blinkenlights back to life once more. At the same time, the Chaos Communication Congress took place right next to the building, which kept us quite busy as well. If you don't know the first incarnation, our documentation video gives a good impression.

Even after that, the building didn't quite let go of us. On October 2nd and 3rd, 2004, we lit it up once more in a nine-hour hack under the name Blinken-Lite: a simple installation that put a pulsing heart over Alexanderplatz. A year later Blinkenlights returned in full size for the first Berlin Festival of Lights, running on all 144 windows again from October 13th to about October 23rd, 2005, with Pong on the phone and movies to submit.