By encouraging curiosity through interactive public art, Jan Lewin aids people in understanding their agency and their surroundings. For nearly three decades, Lewin has helped others appreciate how public art can impact us and the spaces we share. Engineering works with light and sound which take on minimalist forms, her projects reveal their full potential once people engage with them. Lewin’s creations have entertained imaginations at the Istanbul Light Festival, multiple editions of Burning Man, and Vivid Sydney. No matter where her art is encountered, it rewards those who do not shy away from it. Her studio operates out of New York.

My Projects

  • Flow

    Flow is a sculpture designed to combine mathematical, musical, and dance principles into an interactive experience that activates multiple senses. When visitors move beneath the sensors on the bottom of each of its light tubes, they will trigger swirling LED lights that move up the tube as if pushed from beneath, while also playing a musical tone. Trained as a dancer, musician, and mathematician, Jen Lewin combines all of these disciplines in her visual work in an effort to create an immersive experience that highlights the interconnectivity between the human senses. Just as people can trigger sensors on Flow, the sculpture simultaneously triggers the human senses—initiating a “flow” of energy between the art object and the participants. Bringing together highly mathematical principles of music theory, the tones are based loosely on a pentatonic scale, which is often found in traditional Chinese music and sounds as if it shifts fluidly between major and minor tonalities. Multiple layers of sound allow for both range and depth depending on the speed with which a person moves beneath each sensor.

  • Sidewalk Harp

    Sidewalk Harp in Minneapolis, MN changes a city street and it's community through light and sound.

  • The Aurora

    Existing at the intersection of art and technology, The Aurora is a 29-foot-tall, 720-pound experiential sculpture in which both human interaction and weather factors create swirling patterns of color and light. The title of Lewin’s work references the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights—naturally occurring light phenomena that are visible in the northern sky during fall and winter months. Inspired by the beauty and complexity of these organic light forms, Lewin programmed her work to change color based on the weather in Minneapolis. In addition, visitors can shoot light through the sculpture with their motions—underscoring the dynamic interactions between people and environment. Below The Aurora are eight platforms that respond to touch, encouraging visitors to actively participate in an ever-changing composition. The Aurora features hundreds of color palettes with over 8,000 LEDs that are programmed to reflect the seasons and live weather conditions in Minneapolis. The artwork consists of 23,000 aluminum rings formed into a wispy, honeycomb-like structure that evokes the solar wind patterns that create the Aurora Borealis in real life. 2,667 hand-blown glass bulbs are attached to the structure, each with three light-emitting diodes inside.

  • The Ceiling Element

    Session Kitchen was inspired by the ‘sessions’ and the ‘flow and motion’ found in the cultures of action sports, music and street art. Hundreds of recycled florescent bulbs act as diffusing shades clustered around custom made controlled LED light strips. The LEDs have been programed to act as a video wall.

  • The Edison Cloud [2012]

    Composed of 5000 hand welded metal rings, 3000 vintage Edison bulbs, 3000 hand glued white LEDS, 3000 custom cables and over 60 custom controllers, The Edison Cloud represents both an old-fashioned handmade and new mentality. By walking under and around The Edison Cloud you will see a ghostly and low resolution version of your shadow within the sculpture. This provides an experience where the movement of your body brings both beauty and form to glass and digital clouds.

  • The Last Ocean

    Jen Lewin Studio is excited to announce our newest work, THE LAST OCEAN; an expansive landscape of interactive platforms created from reclaimed ocean plastic, evocative of a luminescent ice field composed of beautiful geometric tessellations. This is a work that not only seeks to inspire and educate, but also – through the use of reclaimed ocean plastic – to impact the recovery of our oceans and our planet. The Last Ocean is Lewin's newest public, temporary traveling interactive work. Designed to install in a few days, in any climate, and on any reasonably flat surface The Last Ocean is part of Lewin's "Have Art Will Travel" program which seeks to activate and engage community through art.

  • The Magical Harp

    The Magical Harp is a permanent, outdoor interactive instrument played by passing your body through the 24 low-voltage diode LEDs that shine from the top of the delicate arch to the ground. Much like plucking the string of a harp, passing through the beams triggers custom circuitry and sensors to produce musical notes. Users play to create an ambiance that is individual to the moment of interaction that reflects the broad idea of play that’s still fun and sophisticated.When crowds flock to it and people start to play independently, the group’s participation in a musical symphony.

  • The Pool

    The Pool is an environment of giant, concentric circles created from interactive circular pads that can span up to a quarter of an acre. By entering The Pool, you enter a world where play and collaborative movement create swirling effects of light and color. As multiple users play in The Pool, their interactions become mesmerizing patterns of shifting and fading colors. Part of Jen Lewin's 'Have Art, Will Travel' program, The Pool has traveled the world since 2012. It was built and designed specifically to pack into crates and ship worldwide really easily.