The most impressive outdoor light sculptures. Project "Green River"

Illustration: Polina Breeva

Starts on September 26 in Moscow international festival"Circle of Light" As the organizers promise, during the event, lighting designers and professionals in the field of 2D and 3D graphics will show multimedia and lighting installations in the architectural space of Moscow. Let's figure out how this grand show works. Let's start in order.

Lighting design is the development and design of lighting and light environment for a specific space or object, taking into account the aesthetic perception of the object (for example, if a building stands out with its beautiful bas-relief, it must be emphasized with the help of light and shadow), its ergonomic aspect (lighting functionality, the ability of light to influence on comfort, performance and general condition of a person) and energy efficiency (are there any over-lit areas, is the lighting standard exceeded according to the documents, etc.).

Many people love to walk around Moscow at night - it becomes very beautiful and spectacular. This is mainly due to the lighting designers. Highlight Bolshoi Theater so that it looks even more beautiful, to create a cozy soft light in the alleys of Gorky Park - this is all their task.

2D and 3D graphics are two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics, respectively. The letter D comes from the English dimensions – measurement, that is, literally “2 dimensions” and “3 dimensions”. This computer graphics, that is, computers create and synthesize an image and then process visual and visual information obtained from the real world. That is, the way St. Basil's Cathedral is destroyed and built right before your eyes is simulated on a computer, using the real architecture of the cathedral.

Lighting designers and graphic artists create light installations - key element festival. Light installation is spatial composition, created from various light elements and representing a single whole. Lamps, spotlights, projectors, lasers - this is what the technical part of the light installation consists of.

The entire composition “comes to life” thanks to video mapping (3D mapping) – 3D projection onto a physical object environment taking into account its geometry and location in space.

For video mapping, a computer 3D model of the object on which the projection is planned is required. It is created by engineers visiting the site. They photograph it and take measurements. If the object is relatively simple, then photographs and measurements are sufficient; if not, specialists are needed to conduct a full laser scan of the building.

The resulting model is then subjected to the changes planned in the script on a computer. Based on the measurements obtained, the number of projectors required in the installation is also calculated. For example, the façade of the main pavilion at VDNKh requires 18 projectors. By the way, video mapping requires extremely powerful technology. For comparison - street lamp this is 210 lumens, and a projector in a light installation starts from 20,000 lumens.

Another important stage work - bringing the picture into one whole. Each projector shows part of the image, they overlap each other and need to be adjusted according to indicators - brightness, saturation.

But why do all these images seem real to us? First of all, you need to remember the trick: 3D video mapping can be seen without special glasses, but only from a certain position. If a person moves, his angle of view changes and the effect disappears.

In general, the mechanism is as follows - instead of simultaneously viewing the image, the video signal is split into two color channels (usually red and blue). A dynamic flat color monocular image is processed in such a way that a constant video signal is supplied to one eye (for example, the red channel), and a signal with a short time delay from the changed dynamic scene is supplied to the second (blue channel). Due to the movement of objects in the scene, the human brain receives " three-dimensional image" (but only if the foreground objects are either shifted or rotated - a smooth change of position allows you to maintain the connection between the images and their position in space, without changing the time interval).

Natalya Zhabina, Children's Center scientific discoveries"InnoPark"

About "City Physics"

Every day, when we wake up in the morning, we are immersed in a city full of textures, sounds and colors. While we go to work and walk in the park, a million questions come to our minds about how everything around us works in this huge metropolis. Why under us when a metro train passes under us? And can it happen in Moscow? What are people from outer space like?

Olafur Eliasson is a contemporary Danish-Icelandic artist, known for his large-scale art installations that use such simple elements and phenomena such as light, water, temperature, pressure. The artist works on a number of projects in the field of urbanism in many cities around the world. And in 2003, Olafur Eliasson represented Denmark at the 50th Venice Biennale.

Olafur Eliasson. Biography

Born in Copenhagen in 1967. His parents moved to Denmark from Iceland. His father worked as a cook, his mother was a seamstress. When Olafuru was 8 years old, his parents divorced, and he lived with his mother and stepfather, a stockbroker.

Olafur himself considers breakdancing to be his first creative attempts. In the mid-1980s, he and his school friends created a group called the Harlem Gun Crew. The guys performed in clubs and on dance floors for 4 years and even won the Scandinavian Championship.

Between 1989 and 1995 Olafur Eliasso n studied at the Royal Danish Academy fine arts. In 1990, he received a scholarship from the Academy and went to New York, where he began working as an assistant to artist Christian Eckhart in Brooklyn.

After receiving a degree from the Academy, he opened a studio in Berlin - in an old depot near the Hamburger station. In 2008 the studio Eliasson moved to a former brewery in Prenzlauer Berg.

In 1996, the artist began collaborating with Einar Thorstein, an expert in architecture and geometry. First them general product became a stainless steel dome, more than 9 meters wide and 2 meters high. It was placed as if it was growing out of the ground, being part of something much larger, hidden from view underground.

In 2009-2014 he was a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. During this period, he opened the Institute of Spatial Experiments in his studio. And since 2014, he has been a professor at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa.

Olafur Eliasson. Famous works

Project "Weather" at Tate Modern in London

The project was installed in 2003 as part of the famous “Unilevel” series. Using a mixture of water and sugar, as well as humidifiers and hundreds of monochrome light bulbs that emitted yellow light, Eliasson created a kind of fog in one of the gallery halls. At the same time, the ceiling was mirrored, and visitors could see themselves - small figures in the fog. Running for 6 months, the exhibition attracted 2 million visitors, many repeat visitors.

Project "Weather"

Light installations

The work “Room of the same color” (1998) represents a corridor illuminated by yellow mono-frequency pipes. Walking through it, the visitor sees all the surrounding objects in black and white. By the way, this installation was once presented at the PinchukArtCentre along with other works Olafur Eliasson.

The work “Your Blind Passenger” (2010), commissioned by the museum contemporary art Arkena is a 90-meter tunnel filled with thick fog, through which the visitor must navigate, relying rather on his sixth sense.

Project "Green River"

Having discovered in 1998 the existence of readily available non-toxic uranine powder, which is used to track leaks in water supply systems, he began to actively use it in his installations. The fact is that uranine colors water acidic fluorescent green. For the first time Eliasson used it at the 1998 Berlin Biennale, pouring a handful of powder into the nearby Spree river Museum Island. Later experiments with the safe dye were carried out in Norway, Bremen, Los Angeles, Stockholm and Tokyo - and always without prior notice.

Project "Green River"

Icelandic photos

Periodically presents grids of various color photographs taken exclusively in Iceland. Each group focuses on a specific subject: volcanoes, hot springs, authentic huts. In its first episode Eliasson tried to remove all the bridges in Iceland. He often takes his photographs from the air, on a rented plane.

Icelandic photos

"Your mobile expectations" - general project Olafur Eliasson and the BMW company, in which the artist transformed the 16th art car of this company by applying layers of ice to the car body by spraying 530 liters of water onto special rods and meshes. The created sculpture glowed from within. In 2007-2008, the project “Your Mobile Expectations” was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco in a special temperature-controlled room, and in 2008 at the Pinakothek of Contemporary Art in Munich. Let us remind you that BMW racing cars have already been painted by such famous contemporary artists as Jeff Koons and others.

Project "Your Mobile Expectations"

"New York Falls"- created Olafur Eliasson commissioned by the Public Art Fund for four artificial waterfalls in New York Harbor, namely at the Pier, under the Brooklyn Bridge, at the Brooklyn Pier and on Governors Islands. The installation was in effect from June 26 to October 13, 2008. Its creation cost $15.5 million and, according to opinion, became Eliasson, the perfect way to draw attention to strength and potential natural resources. After sunset, each waterfall was illuminated, creating a stunning impression.

New York Falls Project on the Brooklyn Bridge

"Parliament of Reality" - permanent job, housed at Bard College in New York. The installation is based on the form of the original Icelandic parliament - one of the earliest democratic forums. The artist conceived this project as a place where students can relax, discuss ideas, or just chat. The Parliament of Reality emphasizes that negotiation must be the core of any educational scheme. The project is artificial island, surrounded by a lake, trees and wild grasses.

"Your Rainbow Panorama"- Job Olafur Eliasson, which is a round 150-meter corridor with a diameter of 52 meters, made of glass in all colors of the rainbow and placed on the roof of the Art Museum in Aarhus in 2011. Visitors, walking along the corridor, can admire the city panorama. The production of Your Rainbow Panorama cost DKK 60 million and was financed by the Realdania Foundation.

Project "Your Rainbow Panorama".

"Contact"- exhibition of works Olafur Eliasson, opened at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris on December 17, 2015. Moving from room to room, visitors became part of a choreography of darkness, light, geometry and reflection. You can see many photos from the Contact exhibition.

Exhibition "Contact" in Paris

Olafur Eliasson. Exhibitions and collections

Member over 60 personal exhibitions, his works are currently exhibited at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Los Angeles and others.

Work on the art market Olafur Eliasson represented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York, Koyanaji Gallery in Tokyo, PKM Gallery in Seoul and Neugarriemschneider Gallery in Berlin.

Olafur Eliasson. Personal life

He is married to Marienne Krogh Jensen, an art historian whom he met when she curated the Danish Pavilion at the 1997 São Paulo Biennale in Portugal. They adopted two children, a boy in 2003 and a girl in 2006, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The family lives in a house designed by architect Andreas Laurits Clemensen in Hellerup near Copenhagen.

Design studio Sosolimited has unveiled a new LED interactive sculpture called "Colorspace" in the upper lobby of the 200 Clarendon Street skyscraper in Boston, Massachusetts.
The work was commissioned by Boston Properties, which owns and manages the building. Linear light inserts are suspended vertically, as they say “in a wave-like manner” along the wall. Visitors can send text messages (sms) to the project artificial lighting(SSL), and the system responds by interpreting their messages and creating a dynamic interpretation of their messages in the form of light patterns that are displayed for ten minutes.
The LED installation is creative in shape and works as an interactive feature. It consists of 70 vertically suspended LED lines designed specifically for this project. Each element of the light rig is powered by a separate cable and contains a separate "LED" motor at the top of the light strip. As light diffusers, each light strip uses a diffuser made of special Okalux acrylic, which evenly diffuses light along the entire light element.

IN this project, each element can display a full palette of colors, but only one at a time. The system can dynamically change colors based on a pre-programmed sequence or based on recently received messages from users.
“You can literally send the system any message and it will translate your text into a unique color palette of flickering light,” said Eric Guenther, co-founder of Sosolimited. "If you send the word 'Beach', the space will be illuminated in blue and yellow, and the word “Watermelon” will give you shades of pink and green.”
If there are too many text messages from users, the interactive system puts them in a queue, and at the same time informs users about the time at which their text message will be processed and displayed.

Source: website

LED installation “Christmas Forest in 100 Colors”
Tokyo-based French architect Emmanuelle Moreau is known for her deft use of color. Her latest project "Christmas Forest in 100 Colors" symbolized the New Year's festive season and was showcased at Omotesando Hills, shopping complex in the center of Tokyo.
The architect was inspired by the local landscapes to create this installation at Omotesando Hills. The installation consisted of 1,500 small paper “trees” colored one hundred various colors, which were suspended in space at a height of 13.4 meters above main staircase 7 meters wide. Each of these paper “trees” was equipped with an LED light source, allowing them to emit a soft glow. The installation was carried out in volume, and therefore visitors different levels offered a unique look. In addition, a large triangular-shaped luminous “tree” was installed in the center of the installation, as the central element of the entire installation.

Every 30 minutes there was a special three-minute light show called "Emotional Reflection". During the event, the central large “tree” gradually changed colors from white to yellow, pink, green, blue and rainbow, and the surrounding mini-trees rhythmically changed color to the music specially written for this installation.
Source: silverspringnet

Festive illumination of a country house, streets ★ [Interactive illumination]
New Year's, holiday or themed interactive lighting, lighting design, illumination of building facades has turned into a kind of art - it has become possible to create programmable original lighting compositions, distinguish a building from the rest, and highlight individual elements advantageously architectural elements, give the facade an extraordinary appearance. LED light decorations allow you to create a truly festive atmosphere!

👍 This is a must see:
Holiday illumination project for a country house
This wonderful Christmas lighting and yard space project was realized using large quantity standard LED garlands powered by a 220V network, a switching controller and a computer with the necessary software. The project is quite expensive, but believe me, it is worth it.
Step 1: Sketching your ideas on paper

You can travel by visiting the Porta Estellar light show, which takes you many light years away, from Earth and back, in just six Earth minutes. It is located inside the fuselage of an old DC-9 aircraft. While it remains stationary, some visitors say that this light show actually gives the feeling of flying. More details

Lamps for decorative lighting, festive table lighting
Aqua Mood Light technology based on waterproof LED lamp, will allow you to decorate the space and create a good mood for festive table or enjoy soft light in the evening hours. To illuminate a flower vase, just place the lamp on the bottom of the container or on the side.

The multi-color Aqua Mood Light uses thirteen color tones and three light settings: fixed, sequential and instantaneous. It runs on three AAA batteries and is easy to operate using the remote control.
The miniature lamp has excellent water resistance. It can even be used in the bathroom, in a small pond in the garden, and for other various purposes.
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Nuit Blanche Light Festival in Toronto

Became annual festival contemporary art went from 4 to 12 October in Toronto, the capital of Ontario in Canada. This year the grandiose festival celebrated its first, 10-year anniversary; more than 110 art projects created by hundreds of contemporary artists and representatives of the arts.

Local residents and visitors of the city could enjoy bright and creative projects, among which many compositions were presented in the light of LED lighting beams.

One of Toronto's most popular landmarks is the CN Tower, which emitted a rainbow of light on the opening day of the contemporary art festival. The public was especially active at night - it was in the dark that Toronto shimmered with multi-colored LED lights, without which almost no exhibition project was complete.

A striking and memorable exhibit at the Nuit Blanche exhibition in Toronto was the Cave of Light - undoubtedly, this installation was the most impressive and daring among other projects presented at the festival. The composition, which looked like an inflatable elephant illuminated by LEDs, symbolized the unity of energy and light; spectators could freely walk inside the structure, admiring the grandeur of light and freedom of space.

Other no less interesting composition– the monumental projection on the facade of the OISIE building, called Time of the Empress, also attracted the attention of visitors with its structural outlines. The composition symbolized the instability of many life processes.

A 70-metre projection of the silhouette of a pine tree, rendered in white light, illuminated the façade of the North Office Tower in Toronto. The creators of the project wanted to convey to the audience the idea that in ancient times, white pines reached a height of 70 meters, while now these unique trees grow to a height of no more than 30 meters, and such giants can hardly be found anywhere in modern landscapes.

Source: nbto

At Design Saturday 2016, Belux took center stage with their new product launch "Hello"

Their presentation was accompanied by an LED installation designed by Stefan Hürlemann. The installation “Hello” consists of spiral cables, which gives them a recognizable character. Five, 4-meter double spiral ribbons are suspended in a darkened room. They consist of horizontal stripes extending from a central vertical stripe. At the ends of each there is one white and one black ball.
The strips are driven by electric motors, which turn them quickly and then slow down. With all this, in low light conditions, only white balls are visible, which are constantly describing new spirals, as if performing their poetic dance. Sometimes the spirals are dense, sometimes they create an almost straight line, and sometimes they seem to be interrupted at certain points. Visitors can walk between the dancing spheres while listening to a melody of overlapping pure tones composed specifically for the installation.
Source: website

The Rhythm and Form project is a series of 3 large public sculptures installed in locality called Bethesda, Maryland. Commissioned by Donohoe, three unique light sculptures were installed in a new public plaza near 4800 Auburn Avenue in a series of twisted forms that combine glass, metal and water imagery. A stainless steel strip is depicted as a stream of water passing through an area, based on the three physical states of water. As the stainless steel strip passes through the glass, its shape transforms into a grille with inserted LED lights.
The various components of these installations were created by many different manufacturers within the USA. The sculpture and its components were designed and manufactured in Brooklyn, New York, and Milwaukee. Completed in December 2013, Rhythm and Form was Jason Krugman Studio's first permanent outdoor public art installation. Over the course of 3 years, the company developed physical and digital models, which finally culminated in the final works. Jason Krugman Studio created the sculpture's LED arrays, spending hundreds of hours welding stainless steel and adjusting molds to ensure continuity of lines between the main components.

1. Clusters with 90,000 multi-colored plastic “grapes”

The installation, created by Canadian architects and designers of the company "Claude Cormier + Associes Inc.", is dedicated to the father of impressionism, the great Monet. Peculiar bunches of grapes different colors, which decorated the passage to the city hall, significantly contributed to improving the mood of the townspeople passing through it.

2. "River Flowing" illuminated books

This installation of 10,000 books, illuminated by light bulbs attached to them, could be seen during the Light in Winter festival, held in Melbourne (Australia) this “winter” - from June 1st to July 1st. At the end of the festival, guests of the event were allowed to take the books they liked with them.

3. Glowing Sumida River in Tokyo

On May 5th of this year, Tokyo hosted the two-day Hotaru Festival, in honor of which 100,000 LED blue balloons were released along the Sumida River, which flows through the center of the city. The light installation was called “Stars for Prayer,” and the balls themselves represented fireflies, loved and revered by the Japanese. The LED bulbs, according to Panasonic, which provided them, were fully charged sunlight, and their size was large enough that the fish could not swallow them.

4. Glowing leaves flying in the wind

This amazing installation was created by London designer Paul Cocksedge for the Festival of Lights in Lyon (France), held in 2011. A 25-meter-long light composition decorated the courtyard of the Hotel De Ville.

5. Horses running along the river

An installation of life-size horse sculptures made from dead apple trees, created by Richard Morse and installed in the Grand River. According to the author, she personifies the struggle and preservation that should accompany us when we experience difficult situations in life.

6. Multi-colored “umbrella” canopy

The Aguitagueda art festival graced the streets of Portugal this summer. Two of them were decorated with multi-colored canopies made of colorful umbrellas, which not only created a feeling of magic, floating in the air on invisible wires, but also hid residents and guests of the city from the sultry sun.

7. Interactive heart of all lovers

This 3-meter light installation could be seen on February 14 in New York in Times Square. The huge red heart was created by Danish architecture firm BIG using 400 LED clear acrylic tubes. As soon as people standing nearby touched each other, the tubes began to pulsate with scarlet-red light. The fact is that as people gathered in the square, their steps were collected into energy, which turned into light. This is how people helped their hearts burn brighter and brighter. How else can one interpret such an installation on such a holiday? - Love to everyone!

8. Swarovski Dream Cloud

This stunning cloud of 10,000 Swarovski crystals held together with fine wire mesh was created by landscape designers Andy Kao and Xavier Perrault in collaboration with JP Poll of Bodega Architecture. A cloud graces the Arbor Terrace in Georgetown (Washington State, USA).

9. Interactive "Cloud"

An installation under this name, created by Canadian artist Caitling Brown, could be seen for one day in September this year at the Nuit Blanche festival in Calgary. To create "The Cloud" it took more than 6,000 light bulbs - new and burnt-out incandescent light bulbs, as well as fluorescent light bulbs - and strings to pull, turning on one or another light bulb. Anyone could “get caught in the rain” from the ropes, thereby creating the illusion that lightning was flashing in the cloud.

10. LED Cathedral

This magnificent light installation of 55,000 LED light bulbs was created for the Festival of Lights in Ghent (Belgium). Magic lights at the entrance to the cathedral invited you to stroll along the 27-meter gallery, fabulously flooded with light. This amazing installation, like all those presented here, must be seen at least once to believe that such beauty exists.

British artist Bruce Munro, born 1959, studied at the Royal Western Academy, Bristol Polytechnic.
The designer's strong point is landscape lighting. Using acrylic tubes with decorative tips and optical fiber, Bruce achieves fantastic effects.

Munro's portfolio includes original lamps, lighting projects for private gardens and city streets, and much more. And from time to time his ideas result in large-scale and spectacular installations, which brought the designer well-deserved fame.

One of the studio’s most high-profile projects is the Field of Light installation as part of the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. The installation was installed on a grass roof exhibition center and consisted of 6,000 acrylic tubes terminated with glass sphere tips containing optical fibers.

Munro and his five assistants created the work over three days. The installation is illuminated by eleven spotlights; the stems, by themselves, have no electricity. The area covered with luminous grass is 60x20 meters, 24,000 meters of optical cable were used.

Munro's luminous masterpiece was inspired by a trip to the red desert in Australia. Driving along the Stewart Highway, he stopped every night at campuses along the road, which often created a very contrasting appearance to the surrounding barren desert: oases of greenery embodying living sculptures of surreal design and proportions.

Munro was amazed by the natural processes in the desert: the bare, scorched earth came to life and blossomed after the rain. He made a series of sketches and kept them since his college days.

The Field of Light is an alien, a stranger in the natural world. Like seeds thrown onto a desert land that wait for the rain to come to life, the optical stems wait for the darkness and, together with the lighting stars, come to life and shine, corresponding to the smooth rhythms of the night.

The Light Shower project at Salisbury Cathedral is a giant luminaire consisting of 2,000 pieces of fiber optic cable of varying lengths, illuminated by powerful spotlights.

In ancient English Salisbury, the desire to keep up with the times led to the appearance of another very unusual installation on the territory of the ancient cathedral:

Water-Towers / Water towers are assembled from 15 thousand plastic bottles filled with water, through which 69 kilometers of fiber optic cable are passed. Their shape resembles water towers, which explains the name of the project. The optical fiber is illuminated with LEDs that change color to the music, making the water columns appear to be dancing in the dark.

The main idea of the installation is Divine Light, joy, enlightenment. “Illumination” is the key word in this project.

Bruce Monroe: "I'm primarily interested in light! And how people react to it different materials. For my project, I was looking for a cheap, pliable, and, most importantly, accessible material. And it dawned on me - this is a bottle."

The rector of the cathedral thought that the installation would be made of glass. And when I found out that they would bring plastic bottles, I had to convene a church council.

Mark Boni, pastor: “I won’t explain anything! I say, go and see for yourself. Paintings and sculptures are created so that we look and think. Art begins where it is difficult to find words.”

Within a few days we got used to the “Water Towers”. In the evenings, photographers and loving couples gather near them. A new attraction has appeared in the city.

CD Sea / Sea of CDs.

Bruce Munro, with the help of the British press and BBC Wiltshire radio, appealed to readers and listeners with a request to send him unwanted CDs. People did not remain indifferent, not only the British, but also residents of other countries, and after some time, through the efforts of Bruce, another sea appeared in Britain - laid out from CDs on the grass.

On June 19-20, 2010, Bruce Munro, as well as 140 of his friends, acquaintances and colleagues began creating the installation. In a field near the village of Kilmington, they mowed a patch of grass and began laying discs in the resulting clearing. The result was an amazing “inner” sea, consisting of 600 thousand CDs), reflecting sunlight and moonlight, like small mirrors.

Bruce Munro was inspired to create this installation by the impressions he received on the seashore in Australia thirty years ago. “The light was so strong that the water seemed to glow silver. And it suddenly seemed to me that if I put my hand in the sea, it would somehow connect me to my home in Salcombe, where my father lived... I left the beach in a very good mood"- says the author. That day the boy first realized that such a familiar phenomenon as light could influence emotional state person. The installation "CD Sea" was a recreation of that moment, which, as it later turned out, influenced the entire later life Bruce Munro.

The installation lasted for about two months, after which all the disks were collected and sent to a processing plant.

Longwood Gardens - Longwood Gardens -
called the American answer to the famous gardens of Europe and recognized as an example of a harmonious combination of gardening, architecture, music and theater
Bruce Munro has been invited to create a large-scale exhibition, LIGHT!, which will open in the summer of 2012. For the designer, this will be the first light installation in North America. The organizers promise an unforgettable spectacle.

It is assumed that the LIGHT! will include seven huge light installations in open areas, two in the premises of the Conservatory with an area of 16 thousand square meters, as well as a small exhibition of artfully illuminated sculptures.
Glowing balls of blown glass and plastic will be connected by an electrical "root system" and placed in a large open area.