PONTEZILLA / 2026
All worksThe guardian of borrowed minutes.
A living miniature of the Tejo, fed by the rhythms of a real journey from Caparica to Lisbon.
Somewhere beneath the red bridge lives a creature made from all the minutes the city wishes away. On an easy crossing, it sleeps beneath the water. As traffic builds, it wakes and wraps its tentacles around the bridge. The greater the delay, the fiercer its mood, until Pontezilla is fully enraged.
When the road begins to breathe again, the creature loosens its grip. A few borrowed minutes, given back to the sky.
From the idea to the object
Four LED panels. 1,024 points of light. A 32 × 32 river world sits behind a diffused face, held within a deep black frame.
The number gives the journey time. The creature gives the wait a personality. A useful number becomes a familiar presence: something to glance at, live with and quietly grow fond of.
TomTom Routing estimates the drive for a fixed Caparica-to-Lisbon journey, using current traffic. Comparing that time with the no-traffic baseline gives the creature its mood. Route-reported roadworks or closures can add a small signal to the scene.
A Cloudflare Worker handles the traffic requests and keeps the provider key on the server. The artwork checks for a new estimate every five minutes during its scheduled display hours. A private companion website manages the daily schedule.
An ESP32 runs custom firmware, drawing the world locally at ten frames per second. Four 8 × 32 WS2812B panels form a 32 × 32 field behind the diffused face. The animation keeps moving between data updates.
Time is rounded up to whole minutes. After fifteen minutes without a usable update, the estimate expires. The work also keeps its daily display schedule locally, so its quiet hours survive a lost connection.
Choose a clear run, a sticky crossing or absolute tentacles. Move the journey-time slider and watch the creature change its mood.
The large number is the estimated drive time if you leave now. The creature responds to the extra delay above the route’s no-traffic baseline.
These are demonstration times, not live traffic. The commissioned artwork uses its own local firmware animation. Without a fresh estimate, the number becomes “--” and the world sleeps.
Pontezilla was commissioned and built for a private customer. A unique work by MET4BE4R, 2026. Edition 1/1, held in a private collection.
The gallery view, detail and film are Blender visualisations based on the supplied framing reference and the work’s firmware animation. The exploded construction sketch is an illustrative study. Journey times shown are demonstration values.