Affinity is a vibrant, interactive light installation that explores the importance of memories and the effect of losing memories to Alzheimer's disease.
Every year, thousands of Australians watch people they love fade away as a result of Alzheimer's disease. Inspired by personal experiences from our own team, Affinity is an interactive light sculpture honouring all those who have been lost to Alzheimer's disease.
Affinity explores the importance of memories to who we are, and the devastating impact of losing those memories toAlzheimer's. In doing so, it encourages audiences to make meaningful new memories in an act of defiance against this isolating disease.
Finding a path to understanding
To experience Affinity, audiences are invited to explore an intricate web of interconnected orbs representing neurons in the brain. When touched, these interactive orbs trigger a striking display of light and sound that brings the sculpture to life.
As audience members engage with the orbs, their colour spreads across the entire sculpture. However, if audiences stop interacting, the sculpture is slowly overwhelmed by purple in a metaphor exploring the challenge of remembering memories that are no longer engaged with.
A powerful metaphor for loss
Underneath Affinity’s colourful interactivity, the sculpture transitions throughout it's installation from an angelic white canvas to an ominous deep purple. Early in the sculpture's life, the white colouring allows audiences to create vivid, colourful displays with their interactions.
But slowly, regardless of their efforts, Affinity becomes overwhelmed by a deep purple, erasing their interactions, the connections they made and the memories they created in a powerful testament to the irreversible damage of Alzheimer’s disease on the brain.
Designing for the long haul
By visualising Alzheimer's disease as an artwork that can be interacted with and experienced, Affinity sheds light on an otherwise difficult matter in a way that transcends language and culture, tapping into the universal experience of human life and loss.
Indeed, despite it's landmark size, Affinity has been designed with a lifespan of 10 years of 25,000 hours in mind. It's network-inspired system of modular neurons is completely reconfigurable, allowing it to be repurposed and experienced by audiences around the world.
A new way to raise awareness
Affinity was the largest interactive light sculpture at the Vivid Sydney festival in 2015. Visited by over 424,270 people, with an average visit lasting eleven minutes, Affinity is one of Vivid's most popular installations to date. Affinity was also showcased at Highlight Dementia Melbourne, and has since been exhibited in galleries and festivals around the world.
