Please Feed the Lions - day

Please Feed The Lions was an interactive installation in Trafalgar Square by Es Devlin, known for her innovative projection-mapped sculptures that fuse light, music & tech.

Cast in 1867, the four monumental lions in Trafalgar Square had been sitting as silent British icons at the base of Nelson’s Column for the past 150 years. Overnight on Monday 17 September, a fifth fluorescent red lion joined the pride, facing northwards towards the National Gallery. The new lion was not silent: it roared poetry, and the words it roared were chosen by the public. Everyone was invited to “feed the lion”, and this lion only ate words. By daylight, the ever-evolving collective poem was shown on LEDs embedded in the mouth of the lion. By night, the poem was projection-mapped over the lion and onto Nelson’s Column itself: a beacon of streaming text that invited others to join in and add their voice.

The project followed a year-long collaboration between Es Devlin and Google Arts & Culture. Exploring the parameters of design and artificial intelligence, the installation incorporated a deep learning algorithm developed by Ross Goodwin, creative technologist at Google.

What did the Lion say? Explore the project further at g.co/pleasefeedthelions and explore an online exhibition about the project on Google Arts & Culture.

Scanned in Trafalgar Square, London, on Tuesday 18 September 2018 using photogrammetry by the Google Cultural Institute lab team.