The visitor to this installation is treated to a space which Nigel Johnson has transformed, as if by magic, into a summer's eve. A cloud of fireflies buzz above your head when you move through the space. Johnson got the idea for this installation when one summer evening he saw large shining dots with a green glow dancing in the night air. He had never seen it before. They proved to be caused by the Pterotyx Malaccae, or the American firefly, an insect that gives off luminescence as a result of a chemical reaction in an organ at the underside of its belly. It is an efficient and varied means of communication and, like a beacon, each insect has its own Morse code of light flashes; it is the way the males draw the attention of the females. Johnson used this experience of his to design an interactive environment with hundreds of little lamps. They are arranged at random and hang from the ceiling at various heights, but are high enough so one can walk under them freely. The movement of people in the space are the 'seeds' out of which the sounds and the apparent movement of the installation grows. The computer program selects a starting position for the 'insects', which then move through the space as a pulsating cloud. The sound the cloud of insects makes corresponds to their movement. It swells up and dies out, reinforcing even more the suggestion of real insects.
– Lies Holtrop
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Nigel Johnson ° 1957, Halifax (UK)
Lives and works in Dundee (Schotland)
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1 9 9 8 
