10 Best Ideas of the Week: a Valentine's Day Photo Tunnel, Giant LED Boomboxes, a Metal Fire-Breathing Dragon

For Valentine’s Day, photographer Ruvan Wijesooriya partnered with art curation website Absolut Art to turn the underground subway tunnel at 14th Street and Sixth Avenue in New York into a public art installation. The tunnel showcased thousands of Wijesooriya’s photographs of people kissing, as well as photos of bunnies, rainbows, flowers, and puppies. Passersby were invited to select one photo from the installation to take with them.

Metro Events—the in-house venue managers of Pier 35 in San Francisco—partnered with Danielle Gibson Events to plan and design the Camp Pier 35 Showcase, which transformed the venue into a glamping-theme space highlighting 40 local vendors on January 23. Upon entering the event, each guest was given a wooden coin to spend in the “General Store.” The store space—which was designed by Bright Event Rentals and M. Design Styling and Florals—offered camp-theme swag such as beanies, tote bags, candles, homemade granola, and more. 

Libations Unlimited served warm drinks such as coffee and hot toddies throughout the evening from a wooden camper. 

Ahead of Super Bowl LII, Jennifer Lopez headlined AT&T Presents DirecTV Now Super Saturday Night at Nomadic Live on February 3 at the Armory in Minneapolis. Giant boomboxes made with LED lighting came to life when guests pressed the play button, triggering lights, music, and the emergence of dancers who performed routines. They also housed a DJ booth in the “tape deck” part of the boombox, where DJ Myles Hendrik spun tunes for general admission guests. Blue Revolver handled the event’s experiential production.

Two motion-reactive kinetic LED walls allowed guests to play with the deconstructed floral elements of the Super Saturday Night logo. 

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 19th annual gala took place February 6 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The gala, which was designed by Events by André Wells, had modern, mosaic-inspired chandeliers that accentuated the dance floor. 

The second edition of the Toronto Light Festival kicked off January 19 and runs through March 4 in the Distillery Historic District. A signature installation for the festival this year gives the neighborhood its very own moon. Moonburn, by Netherlands-based artist group Stichting Barstow, offers a replica of a moon that offers a blue-green shine thanks to glow-in-the-dark paint. 

Heavy Meta, from Toronto-based the Heavy Meta Collective, crafted a fire-breathing dragon art car. The structure is 30 feet long and 19 feet tall, and was made with hand-welded sheet metal. 

Netflix hosted the premiere of its new sci-fi series Altered Carbon on February 1 at Mack Sennett Studios in Los Angeles. Produced and designed by Pen&Public, the event had projection mapping of Bay City (the show’s fictional setting) buildings, twinkling lights, flashing signs, and gyrating dancers. 

Guest could rest their food and drinks on surgical instrument tables in an area inspired by the series.