The creative use of light and imagery at Sunderland Station transforms the tedium of everyday commuting into an unexpected and interactive moment. A platform and track, no longer used at the station, has been repurposed to create a low-resolution video matrix that displays the movement of people waiting for trains. The sequence of images is synched with the real arrival and departure of a train—the “ghostly” images congregate, embark, and disembark from a train at the same time as the real passengers. Each character has its own personality, drawn from 35 local residents who were filmed and recorded. Their movements were then digitally deconstructed to create the computer animations on the 144-meter-long- by-3-meter-tall light wall. With a pixel pitch of 200 millimeters, commuters recognize these human, yet virtual, images and connect their own commuting experience to the visual display before them.
Jury Comments: An interesting form of visual communication. • The low-resolution aspect is key in making this an interesting abstraction of a video wall.
Elizabeth Donoff is Editor-at-Large of Architectural Lighting (AL). She served as Editor-in-Chief from 2006 to 2017. She joined the editorial team in 2003 and is a leading voice in the lighting community speaking at industry events such as Lightfair and the International Association of Lighting Designers Annual Enlighten Conference, and has twice served as a judge for the Illuminating Engineering Society New York City Section’s (IESNYC) Lumen Award program. In 2009, she received the Brilliance Award from the IESNYC for dedicated service and contribution to the New York City lighting community. Over the past 11 years, under her editorial direction, Architectural Lighting has received a number of prestigious B2B journalism awards. In 2017, Architectural Lighting was a Top Ten Finalist for Magazine of the Year from the American Society of Business Publication Editors' AZBEE Awards. In 2016, Donoff received the Jesse H. Neal Award for her Editor’s Comments in the category of Best Commentary/Blog, and in 2015, AL received a Jesse H. Neal Award for Best Media Brand (Overall Editorial Excellence).Prior to her entry into design journalism, Donoff worked in New York City architectural offices including FXFowle where she was part of the project teams for the Reuters Building at Three Times Square and the New York Times Headquarters. She is a graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Me., and she earned her Master of Architecture degree from the School of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis.