GLOWING orbs scattered along Hadrian’s Wall are set to light up the sky this weekend.

The interactive art installation called Connecting Light is made up of balloons fitted with LEDs and radio transmitters.

Part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the 400-tethered balloons will shine when members of the public send messages through handheld devices.

Information sent in through smartphones and computers will be encoded and communicated to the transmitters to make the balloons pulsate with colour.

Best seen at a selection of nine locations spanning one of the Roman Empire’s most important structures, the impressive installation is designed to help people views borders in a new light.

It is the brainchild of the New York art-collective YesYesNo, founded by digital artist Zach Lieberman.

He said: “The idea is to re-imagine the border not as something that divides but something that connects.

“We have designed a series of networked weather balloons, which can talk to each other sending messages along the length of the wall.

“The overall effect will be to show pulses of light as communication passes between the balloons and with the audience, who we’ll also invite to submit messages to directly control the installation.”

The installation will be operational tonight and tomorrow between 8pm and 11pm and anyone hoping to take part will need to register as a ‘connector’.

Zach said: “We’ve been doing a series of workshops with the Hadrian’s Wall Trust with people living around the wall.

“We have kept the questions really open. They cover: Who are we? What are we connected to? What sort of places do we want to go? What borders do we want to cross?”

Zach first came to the region in January to scope out the locations potential for the idea.