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Games

Swing a Mallet and Light Up A Bridge in This Giant Strongman Game

Beam’Art brings the classic 'High Striker' carnival attraction to soaring new heights.
Hi Striker © M. Chaulet - Ville de Leon, via

Hi Striker - Fête des lumières de Lyon 2014 from Beam'Art on Vimeo.

Step right up! The high striker—also known as the strongman game—a mainstay attraction at many a carnival, festival, and fairway, just got the high tech update it's been waiting for. Created by Beam’Art, the small creative company formed by Benjamin Petit and Antoine Vanel, Hi Striker is an interactive installation that takes the classic "how hard can you swing a hammer" challenge to soaring new heights.

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Combining 26 beam fixtures and 26 stroboscopes with four DMX controllers to manipulate lights and smoke, 242 LED lighting fixtures, a Road Hog console, a force sensor wired to a Mac Mini, custom software developed in OpenFrameworks, and Ableton Live (whew!), Beam'Art has created "a digital and interactive version of the old-fashioned strong man fair game using lights to materialize the energy and display the score," according to the artists.

Hi Striker first emerged on a 525' tall building in Dubai for the Dubai Festival of Light, and then across the 349' Palais de Justice bridge in Lyon for the Fête des Lumières (Festival of Lights). "The strength of the player was figured by a light flow which crossed the bridge to forward the energy to the Palais de Justice, the law courthouse of Lyon," Beam'Art explains. "It’s an old neo-classical building with 24 Corinthian columns, the score was displayed by the number of columns that were colored."

When Hi Striker debuted in Lyon, the mayor got to go first. Successful strongmen were greeted by a fireworks display on the brige. After four days of festivities, more than 2,000 players got to try out the installation. According to Beam'Art, however, only "about 450 succeeded."

Check out Hi Striker in action below:

HiStriker - Dubai Festival of Lights from Beam'Art on Vimeo.

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