ROM for Royal Ontario Museum

ROM aka Lee-Chin Crystal designed by Daniel Libeskind in collaboration with the Toronto-based bureau Bregman + Hamann does not look like anything connected to natural history and world cultures! Well, the jagged geometry is kinda reminiscent of a gem stone as it is said to have been inspired of... but in its very deconstructive way.

Looks like the new structure of the museum has erupted from the ground and torn the bricked old building of the museum hosting the expositions before - and the interior continues to play with the contrasts and conflicts between the old and the new.

Inside, because of the complex geometry, there appeared quite a number of voids serving different purposes and further exploring the Old VS New topic: an atrium, a hall for ruminating and the most unique light well that we have ever seen!

With 25% of the aluminium-clad surface being glazed, there are floods of natural light in the exhibition halls. Slit-like windows, a signature Libeskind stylistics, are reiterated in the slits and rows of luminaires. Alice in the Land of Illusions, that's how you catch yourself feeling from time to time yet you are not lost at all. Architectural magic? The lighting definitely navigates you throughout this delusive space. Paradoxically enough, lighting with its non-tangible nature is something you can hold on to here, in the surreal Royal Ontario Museum.

Mind-deconstructive!

Strokes of Dance

... a lot of innovation coming from the Land Down Under recently. Architecture, design, polygraphy and now... Glow!

The dance company Chunky Move from Melbourne is pushing the boundaries of choreography: Terpsichore got upgraded and acquired some sophisticated IT skills?

As the dancer moves around the dance floor, the infrared camera is watching every single movement and communicating the data to the computer to generate a real-time series of algorithms. Which turn to the graphic response that we are following. Breathless. Not thinking of all the technology behind it.

And that's what makes it Art.

Scintillation

SCINTILLATION from Xavier Chassaing on Vimeo.

How to make a baroque ballroom even more baroque? Who else but the French know how to play with courtois style: absolutely mind-blowing light projections by Xavier Chassaing... hypnotised!

It Takes Three "You" To Make Imagination Work

We are carried away with Syd Mead's designs and übermentality. Oh, and his Blade Runner and Tron concepts. Can anyone predict the future better than the master-mind behind the Future worlds?

2019: A Future Imagined from Flat-12 on Vimeo.

Slow Dancing in a Burning Room

Having spent seven long years in a classical choreography school, I appreciate the intricacies of the body language and the ways to either enhance or to hide the emotions conveyed by it. The right atmosphere is always a key to creating the feeling of catharsis when watching a dance...

...and Wade Robson's modern interpretation of John Mayer' song is a perfect proof. Beautiful - with the lighting set up of two projectors installed on a wall opposite the mirror, casting shadowy intimate and dramatic light and accentuating the body talk. Sensuous, verrrry!

Electrrrrric

JACK JOHNSON'S ALBUM Sleep Through The Static was made with 100% solar energy: all the songs were recorded onto analogue tape machines powered by the sun in Hawaii and Los Angeles.

That's how the music (acoustic songs performed by a surfer singer who gets inspired by the ocean waves and open skies) seamlessly blends with the light... and you go on whistling his tunes and feeling the sun on your skin and thinking of how pleasures can sometimes be guilt-free and environmentally conscious.

SWITCHitON

SWITCH RESTAURANT, Dubai, UAE

The fav dining out place of a lighting geek should give as much emotional food as... oh what was on the menu?

Karim Rashid's Switch Restaurant and Lounge in Dubai Mall lives up to its name: it is the embodiment of transformation. The sand-dune-shaped walls with continuous colour changing, play on light and shadow, striking black ribbon of the ceiling with Arabic ornamental script, lit up fluid floor, lighting wall decor... it's all about illusions, it's all about impressions, it's all about light.

PS. And you eventually forget your mojito is non-alcoholic :)

Lighthouse Family

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I have an honour to present... another kid from the Family of Lighting Geeks, our dear colleague Carl (apllause)! As if being a lighting designer and a Green Lighting Concept Guru is not enough, Carl can accompany the work process with writing "quick poems" -- and trust me, we are speaking obsession, well, the light form of obsession here!

OK, giving the floor to the poet:

When playing with light

Thinking of what one might

Create or destroy

I get excited with joy

Because lighting is my toy

LED

Luscious like lazer,

Exploding emotions everywhere,

Dramatic disco delirium

All these silly abbreviations…

Columbus

KENT'S STUNNING VIDEO Columbus features two leading "actors":   1) the city  2) the lighting. Urban lighting permeates the scene and oozes from every pore. It enhances movement and somehow creates this feel of loneliness in a crowd. It's very Scandinavian, it's very human. It's universal. 

Personally, I adore this time of day, when the city lights are on and people are rushing somewhere in the darkness lit only by the moon, the stars and the lamps. Everyone has a secret: the faces are not exposed and you can conceal your real self and be a bit of someone else. And your Daddy is holding your hand and telling you of constellations while you're going home from his theatre performance... 

Perfect Symmetry

Yes, indeed. That was the perfect symmetry of the best music, amazing band, incredible atmosphere and... stage lighting! 

The Keane concert in StPetersburg was superb! We found ourselves in the midst of a crowd, dancing and singing and waving our hands, captured completely and utterly until the lighting nerd worm inside us cried: Look up guys! The light effects! That lilac! And that succession of changing scenes!

The stage lighting is all about creating emotions and leading the audience throughout the show, from one song to another, from sadness to exaltation, from feeling the dramatic unity and empathy with the band to clearly realizing the greatness and god-like quality of the performers... to catharsis.

All this and much more was created at that concert. The LD behind it - Matt Arthur (Matt, thank you!), the show was designed and programmed by Rob Sinclair. And this is a perfect inspiration for us, those in professional lighting, for only adding emotion we can spice up a still life of an interior.

Glamourousssssssss

...it woulda been... the classic entourage of disco glamour, all those beams and gleams and sparkles, costume dancing and diamonds...

Aber... Mein Gott! Die Stimme! This is the perfect antidote to the frivolous genre, the voice and the lyrics. And I love paradoxes. And complexity. And lighting. In any form!

So... this is the combination of both, the wrapping and the content: the world seems cruel "when the lights are on, but everyone's gone". And you're standing in the spotlight alone, this is the most nightmarish of all my dreams (Dear Sigmund, please, analyse this! :) Or, "when the lights are out on every street" (Dear Valentina, please, add more lighting to our streets! :)

Meanwhile here I am, glancing over and over and over again, mesmerized by the flows of glint, twinkle, glitz, glitter, frozen tears...

Кино Звезда по имени Солнце

Revolution in my head! 

No sooner had I felt the sudden desire to listen to Kino that the skies opened and the songs started falling on me, original, remixes, a friend from France turned out a big Kino fan, a friend from Sweden was listening to the band... and Kino's songs are: 1) famous for their groundbreaking lyrics  2) contain a lot of metaphors referring to the Sun, the stars and fire.

Here is one of the best songs by Kino, Star Called Sun. We won't go deep into the text analysis and concentrate on the lighting setting. What we like is that the video doesn't seem too old and doesn't really belong to 2 decades ago. The guys's manner of performing is the same as they were playing their live concerts. So they are sometimes literally "in the limelight" and you can't tell if it's a video or a concert. The choice of colour and light setting somehow accentuate the dark and tragic lyrics. Again, light makes the difference.

To contrast, placing the remix video of Star Called Sun by Brazzaville, the visual tone is completely different, more sad and romantic, as well as the lyrics.  

*Kino is the legendary Russian rock band of the 90s, the darkest time of economic and political turmoil, the leader Viktor Tsoj was the cult underground figure with almost unprecedented popularity... He died in a road accident in the 90s.

Love Is The Essence

OK. This is perfection. No. THIS IS PERFECTION!!! It's a blending of my punk nature and my childhood spent backstage while my Dad was performing. Even the cable noodles don't disturb me (and I'm a real geek here, once had 32 electrical sockets on only 8 wall surfaces. A geek, as I said! :)

The black-n-white video with only one colour accent - red PJ Harvey's lips - is minimalistic almost to the point of extreme: the singer, the guitar, the white background... and the lighting! Breath-taking! The images sharply divided or flowing smoothly... the shadows and contrasts accentuating the singer's silhouette and these two shots, the 1st with a club/stage spotlight feel and the 2nd with her fringe against the wall, a shadow play...

Yeah I know the lighting design takes its origin from the theatre... But never before I thought about it serously. Now the urge to create is almost unbearable! 

This is love, this is love

That I'm feeling! 

Cool Light Effects + Great Song + The Band... What Else To Desire?

What LED You Here?

Being a lighting geek means seeking light everywhere... The disco-feel of my TokyoFlash watch leads me through the day (I just want to party all the time... party all the time... party all the taaime!)

Antony & the Johnsons The Crying Light in Eindhoven