Wish Fountain

Regent Properties tasked us to design a series of unique digital artworks for their new buildings that builds community, gives visitors a canvas to impact the space, and reflects on local San Diego culture. Wish Fountain is an interactive experience that transforms visitors’ wishes into a colorful, water-like light show across a ripple-shaped wooden bench and wall-mounted screens.

Inspired by San Diego’s natural environment and ocean landscape, Wish Fountain conveys the undulating surface of the water after a coin hits the surface of a wishing well.

Visitors share their wishes via text message to a posted phone number, as an image or text, in response to a prompt displayed on the screens. Each wish is a secret between the initiator and the fountain, resulting in a unique and captivating animation of colors across the bench and screens. 

The cloud server powering Wish Fountain utilizes a natural language processor to decipher the mood of each visitor’s text. Then, the installation changes its colors and display inspired by the wish, resulting in reflective and distinctive displays of each visitor’s thoughts and feelings. 

To keep the prompts timely, the building owner has access to a cloud-based Content Management System, allowing them to update the wish prompts to reflect current events, holidays, or important local themes. 

Regent Properties and SOSO are committed to adaptive reuse, and Wish Fountain is the perfect answer to adaptively breathe new life into a familiar space. By creating a unique experience for each user, digital installations such as Wish Fountain have an evergreen quality by consistently providing dynamic value to their spaces that static installations can’t. 

Client

Regent Properties

Collaborators

Tecture

Digital Ambiance

Services

Concept Development

Design & User Experience

Interactive Lighting

Installations & Placemaking

Software Development