This page shows a rough impression of the effect of "Aretha," a movement-responsive mandala, to be mounted on the old Maccabees building. In the actual sculpture, the light patterns would constantly change and never repeat. The sculpture will use micro-wave radar, a microphone and a photocell to input information from the movements and sounds of the people below.  The sculpture will generate the linear patterns in response to the movement and sounds .  The mandala, which is the basis of the light grid's pattern, appears in eleventh century tile patterns.  It is derived from a combination of 4,5,6,7 and 8 sided polygons. An early version* of this idea is shown in this 1982 video.  The actual patterns that the computer produces are subtly beautiful and much more interesting than the computer animated patterns depicted here.  The patterns constantly change and never repeat because the sculpture generates the linear patterns in response to the ever changing movement and sounds of the people around it. * "CENTURY OF LIGHT" (1980), shown responding to a dance performance, was located in downtown Detroit.  It was a suspended 18 foot (9 meters) diameter mandala of 144, one foot diameter light spheres displaying computer generated patterns.

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