Luminous Intervention

Luminous Intervention is an artist collective that uses large-scale video projections in public spaces to highlight social and economic issues. We formed in 2012 to creatively support local and national activism, provoke critical dialogue, and interject powerful imagery onto familiar city edifices in Baltimore. Building facades, bridges, and other urban structures become backdrops for temporary video projections. Luminous Intervention is a group based in Baltimore and is made up of artists, activists, engineers, and educators.

The image to the left is from an illuminated tour of Baltimore's West Side, in partnership with the Baltimore Heritage Society, on May 19, 2012. Using building-sized light and video projections during the tour, the group animated several historic sites along Howard Street, as well as sites whose stories have been washed over. This Luminous Intervention project responded to the choices made by the city to employ a kind of “urban renewal” that is unhealthy, unsustainable and inhospitable to its residents. It reflected on stories from residents, workers, preservationists, and business owners impacted by the proposed “Superblock” plan to demolish and develop a significant area in West Baltimore. How do large scale development plans like this one affect the city and its residents?