Designer Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian transformed part of London’s West End into a multi-sensory playground with the public installation Piccadilly Un:Plugged.
Spanning Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and St James’s Market, the installation was created as part of the city’s Art After Dark programme and featured inflatable extraterrestrial sculptures designed to support London’s nightlife.
“Piccadilly Un:Plugged is a call to action,” Ben Hayoun-Stépanian told Dezeen. “As an advocate for youth countercultures and the importance of supporting nightlife, this installation is my way of reconciling members of the public with nightlife.”
The sculptures on display included asteroid-shaped boulders and cats in reference to the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment, which investigates how a cat can be simultaneously alive and dead.
“This experiment, which defies common sense, is one of the most defining statements of modern world physics,” said Ben Hayoun-Stépanian. “It shows that we can’t rely solely on human common sense when it comes to the future and the cosmos.”
“These cats were designed as a call to activate your radical imagination when thinking about the future – whether it’s on earth or in space,” she said of the installation, which she called a “cosmic playground”.
The installation’s palette of iridescent hues and UV-reactive finishes was influenced by Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s background in textiles and her long-standing fascination with nail art, particularly chrome and iridescent finishes.
“Textures and palettes are always my starting point,” she said. “I wanted to channel ‘alien aesthetics’ – something strange, shape-shifting and unfamiliar.”
“You should look at the sculptures and ask: what is this and what is it made of?” she added.
A key element of the installation was a lunar sound experiment, where audio signals – including contributions from musician Ayse Hassan and other sound artists – were bounced off the moon’s surface and transmitted back to Earth.
“The sound becomes chaotic, filled with static from the cosmos,” explained Ben Hayoun-Stépanian. “It’s uncomfortable to the human ear, but it pushes us to listen in a different way – it’s like DJing with the moon.”
A 25-minute film titled From the Void to the Full also formed part of the installation, becoming the first extended video work to be shown on the Piccadilly Lights screen.
The collage-based visual work, which showcased the universe from the depths of the ocean to outer space, aimed to explore “humanity’s drive for discovery through fire and electricity”.
In addition to the inflatable structures and sound experiment, the project included a collection of extraterrestrial-inspired ceramic artworks created in collaboration with local youth groups, which explored how popular culture has shaped how we visualise extraterrestrial life.
Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian is a London-based designer and filmmaker. Her previous works include Tour de Moon, a UK touring festival of live events, and I Am (Not) a Monster, a film that discusses diversity within the design industry.
The photography is by Nick Ballon.
Piccadilly Un:Plugged was on show from 6 March to 8 March. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.
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