Parallel Flow – Interactive Light Art

Interactive Light and Sound Art

Parallel Flow is an interactive sound‑and‑light installation where two parallel arrays of vibrant light tubes trade evolving, undulating patterns that shift continuously through the night.

Festivalgoers shape the installation’s high‑level light behaviors using illuminated wands embedded with gyroscopic sensors. Through exploratory movement and playful gestures, participants generate rippling visual effects that travel across the work’s full spatial footprint.

The piece marks the first creative collaboration between Dina Fisher and David Howe. Commissioned by Scottsdale Arts, it premiered at Canal Convergence 2025, the annual light‑art festival along the Arizona Canal in Scottsdale’s Old Town cultural district. Each year, nationally and internationally recognized artists transform the waterfront, drawing tens of thousands of visitors nightly.

At times, Parallel Flow’s twin light arrays engage in a call‑and‑response across the canal; at others, they mirror one another, casting synchronized choreographies of color onto the water’s surface. The installation also incorporated sound‑responsive lighting driven by nightly DJ sets and live musical performances by the artists.

Conceptually, Parallel Flow explores duality and time. Its continually shifting patterns move along both shores in an ever‑changing algorithmic dance. Just as water takes form through the interplay of current and container, the work reflects how creative transformation and primordial flow emerge from an underlying universal order.

Creative collaborator: David Howe

Commissioned by: Scottsdale Arts

Event: Canal Convergence 2025