An interactive installation · Black Rock City 2027
I'm so happy you're here.
A fifteen-foot heart built from 128 pixels of light. Touch it and it answers. Sit in front of it and the whole heart is yours to play.
The idea
At the gate of Black Rock City, strangers hug you and say "Welcome home." HeartBit keeps that greeting going all week.
A white sculpture by day, a heart of light by night. Touch a pixel and it answers. Sit on the benches and play it together.
Every touch says the same thing: I'm so happy you're here.
Day & night
The same heart looks different as the light moves across the playa: white frosted glass in the sun, color after dark.
Play the heart
Every pixel within reach is a button, and the two benches in front work like a joystick. Pick a mode and try both.
A library of animations, from a heart monitor to a parade of emoji, and every one answers a touch: Color flood spreads a new color from your hand, Pulse and Matrix change their light, Emoji switches the face.
The heart turns into a playfield and the benches become controllers. Classic arcade games, redrawn for a heart-shaped screen.
The game plays itself until someone sits down and takes the controls.
The heart writes in scrolling text, readable from across the playa, each message in its own style.
Tap the heart to change the colors of the letters and the background.
The heart listens to music nearby and turns into a fifteen-band equalizer. The louder the sound, the higher the bars.
COLOR FLOOD · RED
TOUCH A PIXELTap the heart and the animation answers.
SIT ON A BENCHIn games the benches are the controller. Elsewhere left is back, right is forward.
Art car
When a mutant vehicle parks next to the heart and plays music, HeartBit turns into a giant equalizer. Every column of pixels becomes a frequency band, with bass on the left and highs on the right, all moving to the beat.
NO SPEAKERS OF ITS OWNThe heart makes no sound. It only listens and turns the art car's music into light.
15 BANDSOne column of pixels per frequency band, bass to treble, with falling peak markers.
A MEETING POINTArt cars get a reason to stop, and the crowd gets a dance floor with a fifteen-foot visualizer.
Construction
Artists
ENTREPRENEUR, GAME DESIGNER
Five Burns, two art support camps, and a passion for bringing people together through play. Tair has created numerous escape rooms, founded the Museum of Selfies and Pixel Rooms. With HeartBit, he brings that same spirit to the playa.
MAKER, FABRICATOR
Three Burns, three art support camps, and countless nights building things that glow in the dust. In his Costa Mesa studio, Robert designs and fabricates custom pieces of every kind. On the playa, he builds art for everyone. HeartBit is his love letter to Black Rock City.