A blue evening settles over the city. The streetlights turn on, people head home, and the cobblestones echo with the sound of bicycle tires against stone. But the three-wheeled cargo bike rolling forward is no ordinary bicycle. Inside its wooden box rests a projector, a speaker, and a battery pack. When the bike stops in front of a worn gate, something begins to happen.
A beam of light strikes the metal. A window opens in the projection, and three figures lean out. They move, gesture, and speak. With the speaker filling the street with their voices, passersby stop in surprise. Someone lifts their phone, another bursts into laughter, two strangers begin to talk.
This is not a festival, no massive stage, no commercial spectacle. It is something else entirely – a vision of the small 3D mapping event on wheels, where art meets people in the moment.
My Vision – An Alternative to the Big
The vision grew from a sense that massive light festivals and large-scale installations often create distance. They attract enormous crowds, demand large budgets, and become tourist magnets – but what about the intimate art experience, the one that speaks directly to an individual on the street?
I imagine an alternative: a cargo bike that rolls quietly, parks in front of a door or a wall, and suddenly the space comes alive. Figures appear in a projected window, sound fills the street, and for a brief moment people experience something unexpected.
This is not an idea I claim to own, but a vision – an image of how art could move from monumental to microscopic, from massive to human.
A Living Window
At the heart of the vision is a simple thought: ordinary surfaces become living stages. A rusty door turns into a theater. Three figures lean out and interact with the street. The speaker in the cargo box makes the illusion complete – voices sound as if they truly come from within the building.
This is more than an image. It is movement, sound, and presence. Art that does not wait to be sought out, but instead seeks out people in their everyday lives.
The Bike as Symbol
The use of a cargo bike is crucial to the vision. The bicycle is ordinary, human, and close. It can move anywhere, it draws no attention until it suddenly transforms.
Where trucks and big stages demand logistics and permits, the cargo bike rolls unnoticed through alleys. When darkness falls, it becomes a stage on three wheels.
The bike becomes a symbol of a new form of art: mobile, accessible, democratic.
Historical Roots – But a New Scale
The vision draws from several art traditions:
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Street art – taking art out of galleries and into the public realm.
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Guerrilla art – surprising audiences by appearing without permission.
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Sound art – altering the experience of places with soundscapes.
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Light festivals – as in Lyon or Gent, where entire cities are transformed by light.
But the difference here is scale. This is not massive, but intimate. Not monumental, but personal. I imagine the small 3D mapping event as a poetic contrast to gigantic installations.
The Power of Ephemerality
A central part of the vision is impermanence. When the projector switches off, nothing remains. No murals, no structures to dismantle. Only the memory of those who happened to be there.
It echoes performance art of the 1960s, where works existed only in the moment. And perhaps that is what makes it strong – the knowledge that one has witnessed something unique, never to be repeated.
The City as Stage
I imagine each night as a new experiment. An industrial alley on Monday. A historic gate on Thursday. A modern glass façade on Saturday.
Each site becomes its own story. A forgotten wall suddenly becomes a focal point. A park barrier transforms into a living window.
The city itself becomes the artwork.
Social Power and Encounters
Most important in this vision is not technology, but encounters. When something unexpected happens in the city, people pause. They share a laugh. They talk to strangers. They experience together.
The cargo bike could become a social catalyst, a way to break anonymity and create fleeting moments of connection.
Technology as Enabler
The technology is simple: a projector, a speaker, a battery pack. But simplicity is the strength. It means the vision could be realized anywhere – in a small town, a metropolis, a festival, or a single street.
It is not hardware that creates the experience, but creativity in what is projected and where.
An Urban Laboratory
I see the cargo bike as a laboratory on wheels. A place for experimentation. One evening, projected figures in a window. Another, an artwork that cracks open a wall. A third, sound more dominant than image.
The vision thrives on variation and improvisation. Always surprising. Always new.
Future Possibilities
The small 3D mapping event could take many forms in the future:
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Interactive projections where the audience influences the figures.
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Collaboration with artists to display their works in public.
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Themed nights where entire neighborhoods receive micro-events.
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Music and theater blending voices, soundscapes, and light.
But always in small scale. Always intimate. Always with the feeling of an unexpected encounter.
A New Language for the City
The vision is not meant to replace large light festivals, but to complement them. Big events have their place – but they risk becoming tourist shows rather than intimate art.
The small 3D mapping event is something else: it speaks directly to the individual. It creates moments in everyday life. It gives the city a new voice, a new rhythm.
It becomes a new language for urban life – poetic, playful, human.
Conclusion
My vision is simple: a cargo bike as a platform for art. A small 3D mapping event on three wheels, where light, sound, and movement transform urban surfaces into living stages.
It is a vision of intimacy in an age of monumentality. Of fleeting moments in a world that seeks permanence. Of community in cities where people often pass each other silently.
Perhaps it will come to life. Perhaps it will remain only a vision. But art always begins with a vision – the ability to imagine something beyond what already exists.
And I imagine: an evening in the city, a cargo bike stopping, a door opening in light, three figures leaning out to speak. People pause, smile, and for a brief moment feel the world is larger than they thought.
That is my vision.
The small 3D mapping event – on three wheels.
By Chris...
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