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Jólan van der Wiel and Nick Verstand www.jolanvanderwiel.com

Functional Social Distancing Art

By 01-06-2020

Interplay of lasers visualize a distance of 1.5 meters in public spaces

The artists Jólan van der Wiel and Nick Verstand present their Smart Distancing System (SDS). A combination of motion tracking technologies and computer-controlled lasers shows a playful combination of lines on the ground, dependent on the people present. In this way, these people will be able to move more easily and more safely through public spaces in a clever way. The safe distance between people is visualized by means of circles, shapes, arrows or lines. This creates a grid of smart lines that makes visiting busy places – for example stations, airports, shops, fairs and catering establishments and in the future also festivals or clubs – more fun, more pleasant and safer.

By means of its practical application the art project gives a boost to society, both economically and socially. Van der Wiel and Verstand: “We started to think about ways in which we could make the one-and-a-half-meter society easier to deal with. How can we from the cultural sector introduce initiatives that create more freedom and opportunities? How can people keep sufficient distance from each other without becoming standoffish? By handling technology in a clever way and developing visually appealing shapes, social distancing can become more fun, more beautiful and above all more functional than it is today. Let’s hope that depressed-looking tape lines and the enclosure of certain areas will soon be a thing of the past.” The visual applications of the lasers are endless. By means of circles, for example, one-and-a-half-meter zones moving along around people can be indicated. Another application is using lines to indicate the distance between two people. The software has been developed in-house and will soon be available on a large scale.

www.nickverstand.com
www.jolanvanderwiel.com

Visuals: Joery Verweij