Dynamo

Role
Software developer

An LED scuplture

Studio Daniel Canogar presents one of its most ambitious projects to date: Dynamo, a suspended installation created for the atrium of the Spanish Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020. Developed in collaboration with renowned sound artist Francisco López and produced with the support of the Spanish Agency for the Promotion of Cultural Projects (AC/E), the work consists of sculptural LED screens forming three interlaced loops.

A spiraling ramp encircles the installation, guiding visitors down to the lower level of the atrium and offering multiple perspectives of the piece as it unfolds in space.

Sound artist Francisco López commissioned me to design an algorithmic system to power his composition for Dynamo. The system transforms sensor and video data from the sculpture into musical cues, functioning both as an automatic mixer and as a trigger for sonic events.

Visitors can interact with the sculptural screens through an interactive system embedded in the ramp’s handrail. When hands are placed under the sensors, animated sparks appear on the screens. The more the audience engages, the more dynamic and vibrant Dynamo’s visual and acoustic content becomes.

Like an electromagnetic dynamo, the artwork gradually gathers energy until it culminates in a powerful surge—a thundering audiovisual crescendo that reverberates through the atrium. This climactic moment evokes the roar of past machines, technologies that have long inspired both awe and unease.

After the ecstatic discharge comes a calmer phase, suggestive of the circulatory systems of living organisms. Slowly, the cycle begins anew: energy is collected, released, and renewed, echoing the rhythms of both biological and technological systems.

Dynamo is a meditation on the circulatory nature of energy and the synchronization of biological and technological systems. It is also an invitation for us to imagine and participate in the dynamos that will energize our future.