Tampere students light up their dorm - and how!

The wall of Finland’s largest university dorm, a building loved and loathed by thousands of student residents over the years, was transformed on Tuesday night into the country’s largest videogame display unit.
      Bright LED-lights were placed in the windows of all the apartments in Block D of Mikontalo, affectionately known as “Mikkis”, situated in the Hervanta district of Tampere.
      The facade of the 11-storey building, with nine windows on each floor, then served as a platform for a very impressive light-show, on a giant 9 x 11 pixel screen.
     
During the 3-day “Mikontalolights” event, the wall of the building was used to play Tetris and other popular first-generation video games, and to show off the computer graphics skills of the students at the Tampere University of Technology, who had been dreaming of realising such a project for years. Renovations to the building, which dates from 1980, gave them a suitable “window of opportunity”.
      Apparently it was worth the wait, as a large crowd gathered outside to watch, and a great many more have followed the proceedings from the Mikontalolights website, or on YouTube.
      Tuesday’s four-hour performance was followed by a similar show on Wednesday, and on Independence Day the building was given a patriotic facade in LED-light form.
     
No amount of writing or still photos can do the project justice, so click on the video links below and go to the Tampere University website for details. The dedicated site also explains how it was done.


Links:
  YouTube - Mikontalolights
  While we are at it, this old chestnut uses a similar technique, but flashing lights rather than "window-pixels". Some people will go to any lengths to outdo the neighbours.
  Mikontalolights - a video sample (keep watching after the opening fireworks...)
  Mikontalolights - Homepage