Make Music This Weekend in the Seaport

You can now feel like a kid again on glowing musical seesaws in the Seaport. Yup, that's right! The internationally renowned public art installation, known as Impulse, has finally opened in the Seaport. The free installation is designed to animate public spaces during dull winter months with its LED lights and sound sequences, both of which vary in intensity as people ride them.

Impulse is a publicly activated light and sound experience. The project uses the idea of repetitive units of subtle light and sound that can be played by the public to create a temporal, ever‐changing event. Impulse embodies ideas of serialism, repetition, and variation to produce zones of intensity and calm.

The Seaport, and all the spaces Impulse visits, is transformed into a place of urban play. When not in use, the see‐saws will stabilize to the horizontal and remain at a lower glowing level. When activated by users and inclined, the see‐saws, augmented by LED lights and speakers, will increase in light intensity and emit a randomized sound sequence. This variation in intensity aims to animate the public space and its occupants during the cold and dreary winter. Impulse will be an ever‐changing urban composition and urban instrument, in which city dwellers are the musicians and artists.

The glowing seesaws have previously made appearances in Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Montreal, London, and Scottsdale. They also took over Harvard Yard in 2017 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of ARTS FIRST, Harvard’s annual showcase of student and faculty creativity. The public art piece will be open in the Seaport through April 8, giving Bostonians well over a month to catch a ride on the illuminated playground.

Grab you gal pals, your significant other or the kids and devour the details as you head over to the Seaport to see these seesaws for yourself!