Southport Broadwater Parklands
Client: Gold Coast City Council
Landscape Architects: EDAW-AECOM
Artist: John Tonkin
Nervous System is an interactive electronic artwork by Sydney-based artist and programmer John Tonkin. Commissioned for the Southport Broadwater Parkland by Gold Coast City Council, the work consists of 20 stainless steel units which responsively emit coloured lighting and sound. The programmed light and sound interface reacts to movement, light levels, sound and temperature within each work, while also being transmitted among the group. Reactions from one work can trigger larger responses from the whole group. In this way the work responds to environmental conditions while also itself behaving as an environment. Some of Nervous System’s behaviours may also be emergent as the program plays and ‘evolves’ over time – a smart artwork for a new generation!