Making Spirits Bright
December 2025 · Harvey's Quay
72 illuminated snowflake pads spread across Harvey's Quay for Christmas 2025. Step on one and the city plays back, a warm glow underfoot, a clear bell tone ringing out over the river. A busy pedestrian route became, for a month, something worth stopping for.
Harvey's Quay is one of the city's main pedestrian arteries, a wide riverside walkway that carries thousands of people through the Christmas season without asking anything of them. Making Spirits Bright asked something: step on a snowflake.
72 large pads lay across the quay surface, each one glowing softly, shaped like a snowflake. The response is immediate. Light blooms underfoot, a bell tone rings out over the river. Walk across the full field and, without meaning to, you compose something.
The title comes from the Frank Loesser lyric, but the piece is less about sentimentality than about surprise. It interrupts a familiar journey. The quay you cross every day starts playing back.
The pads were tuned to a pentatonic scale, a set of notes with no dissonant intervals, where any combination sounds harmonious. A child stomping randomly produces something as pleasing as a deliberate adult sequence. The piece doesn't reward expertise or punish randomness. It just plays.
Credits
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