Syndica: Interactive Data Wall at Solana Breakpoint 2025

Client

Syndica, for Solana Breakpoint 2025

Date

December 2025 · Abu Dhabi, UAE

Role

Creative Technology · Interactive Development · On-Site Integration

With

Harry Down, creative direction (Syndica)
Jake Reedy, on-site integration

Overview

For Syndica's booth at Solana Breakpoint 2025 in Abu Dhabi, we designed and built an interactive experience for a 3 by 2 meter LED wall that turned visitors into generative ASCII art. People stepped into the piece, posed for a photo, and left with a branded print of themselves. The same image was also written as ASCII to the Solana blockchain.

The Experience

With nobody nearby the wall ran in an attract mode, rendering the Solana logo and messaging in ASCII. Behind that, the background rotated between visualizations of the Solana network, raw transaction data streaming past, and a branded text treatment.

The full 3 by 2 meter wall running the node-and-connection visual, sparse linked points spanning the display as a visitor walks past — The wall at full scale on the conference floor, running the node-and-connection treatment.

When someone stepped into the detection zone, an Orbbec Femto Mega depth sensor and real-time person tracking flipped the piece into engage mode. Filtering by depth is what made this work on a busy conference floor: it kept the person at the wall separate from the crowd walking behind them, so the character field resolved one visitor instead of a blur of foot traffic.

The Syndica stand on the Breakpoint conference floor, with a tracked visitor resolved into the LED wall at right — Engage mode on the floor. Depth data resolved each visitor into the character field in real time.

Detected visitors triggered a countdown to photo capture. A second or two later the image was on the wall as a QR code they could scan, and printed on a branded takeaway card.

Visitors standing and seated in front of the LED wall, their silhouettes rendered into the visual as a group — Groups queued and gathered at the wall throughout the conference.

A visitor holding a phone showing their captured ASCII portrait — The takeaway: visitors left with their own portrait in the same ASCII system, on their phone within seconds and as a branded print.

A printed card being scanned with a phone to retrieve the captured image — The takeaway: visitors left with their own portrait in the same ASCII system, on their phone within seconds and as a branded print.

From Concept to Conference Floor

Close-up of the LED wall showing live transaction strings rendered as blue ASCII characters — The transaction-stream direction up close: live Solana data rendered as legible ASCII, no loop and no pre-render.

The wall showing a green-accented ASCII state naming an on-chain token — The transaction-stream direction up close: live Solana data rendered as legible ASCII, no loop and no pre-render.

The whole experience ran from one self-contained TouchDesigner system. It had to travel from Utah to the UAE, set up on a conference floor, and run reliably for four days. That is why it is one machine running one system.

Detail of the wall showing readable Solana program instructions and transaction results as ASCII text

Technical Specifications

Display: 3 × 2 m LED wall
Depth sensor: Orbbec Femto Mega
Person detection: YOLO real-time detection via TouchEngine
Render engine: TouchDesigner, generative ASCII system
Data source: Live Solana network transaction API
Takeaway: Branded photo capture with generated QR delivery
States: Attract → Engage → Capture (state machine)
Photo stations: 3
Run: December 10–13, 2025 · Abu Dhabi, UAE

More From the Floor

A visitor reaching up toward the wall, their arm resolved into the ASCII field in real time

A visitor standing before the wall, their full silhouette rendered in blue ASCII characters

A generated QR code displayed large on the wall beside a scan-to-save prompt

A visitor taking a selfie in front of the wall while being tracked by the installation

The wall in a magenta and blue graphic state built from ASCII characters

A printed takeaway card showing a visitor's ASCII portrait alongside a QR code

Syndica stand banner reading Capture Yourself Onchain in ASCII with step-by-step instructions

Etihad Arena exterior in Abu Dhabi with Syndica branding on the venue screen

What Else Is Possible

The same approach works with almost any live data source: trading activity, product usage, sensor data. Pair it with audience interaction and a photo takeaway, and a company's own data becomes something people at a conference can stand inside of.

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