A century without the Sun

 

RJUKAN, NORWAY. They have been dreaming of the Sun since 1913. A small town surrounded by mountains has finally got its portion of direct Sun. Some 400 meters above the town, a smart mirror system was installed this Autumn to cast a ray of natural light over to a town square.

 

Martin Andersen a local resident-artist has realized the Sun completely disappears from the town square by the end of September and never sheds light till the mid March. 12 years after his observation he got a German supplier of concentrated solar power to helicopter three 17-square meter mirrors on the sloop of Gaustatoppen. solar-powered computer controlled system follows the movement of the Sun and projects a fair portion of it onto Rjukan's market square.

 

A piece of art or an actual source of light? Does it matter if it makes you feel shiny?

 

P.S. we have used an instagram photo (found simply searching by the hashtag) of which we believed served best to show the reaction of  dwellers of Rjukan to the project.

If light is not what you expect? A slightly boring technical note

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DUBAI, UAE. A question from a client has recently prompted to digg into a question why dimming LED does not feel like dimming conventional halogen spotlights. They have refurbished a restaurant and replaced spotlights with halogen lamps to LEDs. The effect did not impress: instead of warm ambience the client got pale dull environment.

The phenomenon of warmth in a dimmed halogen lamp is achieved through cooling down the tungsten filament. Less current passing through it gives out a redder spectrum of the light. Naturally we are expecting warmer hues from lesser light!

LED light source uses a different physical mechanism: electroluminescence. Halogen lamp is still incandescent in its nature. There is no major change in the color of the light when the current passes through an LED die. This change, in fact, is not discernible to the human eye. The color of light in an LED depends on the chemicals used to coat the LED die, and not on the thermal radiation.

Hope we have not yet lost you by the fourth passage. Because here is the good news:  the industry has a solution to offer. LED Engin from the USA has developed a light source which combines several dies driven separately which helps to imitate a shift from 3000K to 1800K (your incandescent lamp is 2700K, and your candle is 1700K).

Adopted from LEDs Magazine

What if we don't need a cable to transport light?

Rendering below shows SmartLight in action. Image courtesy of source site.

 

CINCINNATI, USA. A pair of scientists from the University of Cincinnati are convinced there is enough daylight for every room in every building. Their idea is to get rid of mediums in turning light into energy and the latter into light again. Anton Hafmann and Jason Heikenfield propose to channel light through the grid of electrofluidic cells, and then 'poured' down by demand above a certain area of the room. Each cell is only a few millimeters wide and contains fluid with high optical properties. Minimal electrical stimulation (cells are self-powered by sunlight; embedded phtotvoltaics are located by the windows) turns fluid into lenses shapes, and thus controls the light. According to Heikenfeld, professor of electrical engineering, the whole system 'looks like a piece of glass that all of a sudden switches."

 

Surely, this is the system for the Gulf.

 

Full article can be found on this website.

Light music: Arcade Fire, Reflector

This morning's post on our Facebook page. We play an Arcade Fire video that gives another angle on reflectors

https://www.facebook.com/LightIN.a.k.a.LightIntelligence/posts/753191664695927

Excuse me, have I just drunk from a red or green cup?

Photo courtesy of source web-site

ROME, 4th Century A.C., an entertaining souvenir or a probe for royal poisons? This way or another, a Lycurgus cup remained a secret for scientist until the last decade of the 20th century. This chalice changes color: from green if lit from the front and scarlet if lit from behind. Craftsmen in Rome have grounded silver and gold till they got a nano-particle, a thousandth of a grain of a table salt!

Particles were then added to glass. Here is an explanation of Gang Logan Liu, an engineer of University of Illinois: "When hit with light, electrons belonging to the metal flecks vibrate in ways that alter the color depending on the observer’s position. When various fluids filled the cup, Liu suspected, they would change how the vibrating electrons in the glass interacted, and thus the color."

Drinks, anyone?

Full article can be found on The Smithsonian Magazine website.




 

The Green Mile

Dubai, UAE. One liter of petrol costs $0.47 and one kWh -- $0.062. It takes some 45 km to burn a liter of gas, and around 5 km to buzz a kilowatt. Yet, for the green enthusiasts there is a shed where they can hire a Nissan Leaf or a Chevrolet Volt, or even a Tesla.
We spotted the rental in the morning, and when walked by later in the evening, Smart and Fisker were gone. Promise to post a picture later, when we catch them. Or drive. Bzz...

Dance to the Music (of the New Year's Eve Dubai Fireworks)

We thought, the mission was impossible and nothing in Dubai can surprise us with its gigantonomous scale anymore... Fountains? Burj Al Arab lighting? Burj Khalifa heights? Burj Khalifa fireworks? Come on, we saw the preparations, we saw the fireworks boxes being mounted onto the Burj's planes, we challenged the security around the area and once got past three of the guards, as close as it can be! With all this technicalities, we thought, okay, another fireworks in Dubai.

Yet time and again, we are standing there like children, watching it and capturing the truly festive atmosphere around.

Well, and a Happy New Year 2012 to you!

53 Weeks of Sunlight

53 pictures, 53 weeks, a bit more than one year...

Is it enough time to observe all the subtle movements of sunlight, all the shadow play, all the colour change as the season go by, from the crystal white of snow to the tasty green of spring to the peony fire of summer and the final fade away of autumn? We were plunged into the midst of this feast (we nicknamed it Light & Nature and then it developed into something that is hard to embrace and therefore hard to find a name that could possibly carry all the beauty, all the connotations of it) thanks to our co-author and contributor, our friend and a brilliant photographer Pirjo Lindfors.



Week by week, every Sunday there appeared a post on our Facebook page with an image that had been taken by Pirjo when she had been on a photo-hunt somewhere out there in the oh-so-distant and oh-so-beautiful Finland. And everytime it was a complete and utter surprise!



Paying homage to our friend with those small quick collages and wishing her all the best and her book to be published soon (we are queuing for the autograph :)

Kiitoksia paljon Pirjo!


Light Intelligence

L.A. Confidential

Colin Rich's time lapse shot of Los Angeles & The Cinematic Orchestra's song radiate a surprisingly delicate glow. A bit different from what we expect to see in LA.

And a bit of a controversy to the point that each city's lightscape is meant to showcase its unique character... just an infinite urban sea of light.

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!

Light-Walkie-Talkie

As long as light is not a static thing, the attempts to capture it or showcase its effects are quite tricky. Interactivity always does lighting good, especially when the person performing the lighting talk is an Artist! And an internationally acclaimed artist and lighting designer Leni Schwendinger is truly a story-teller: narrating of seemingly trivial simple things that surround us in our everyday evening walks and make an impression that a rare person notices consciously but that is inevitably imprinted in our minds... that could annoy you for no apparent reason or that could give you a pleasant feeling of safety and comfort.

So... how many times have you walked The London NightSeeing™ LightWalk?

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.

Lighting Trends As Seen By Light.In

Good news or bad news? 2011 is almost here, and the lighting industry is on the edge. It is the edge of biggest challenges and changes, the Age of Discovery has left us with plenty of ideas but with limited resources. Is the world of lighting ready for it?

1. MOTLEY CREW

The trendiest places are diverting from concepts to anti-concepts, using all that has come to hand for lighting. The creative spirit combines all kinds of fixtures, old, new, elegant, clumsy, big, small... in one spot. Seemingly versatile, all luminaires are bound by one type of the light source, thus creating the perfectly thought-of effect. (Anti)-conceptual?

Shit Store, Stavanger, Norway

More >> Waste Wood, Fuselage Cupboards... and Bestlite

2. LIVING LIGHTS

Switch is dead. Controls take over. We witness the rise of a control system. Every project specification reads DALI, an acronymfor digital addressable lighting interface, or simply, a system operating each light fitting as an individual address (same way as PCs in your office are connected in a network). Lighting control systems are usually a part of a larger building management system that reigns over security, ventilation, and on and on. For an ordinary user it means: we now can officially disregard that old switch on the wall. Lights will go off automatically.

Dubai Mall, UAE

More >> Can You Hear It Ticking?

3. iLIGHT

Last year we wrote about specialized apps. This year, you can download onto your iPhone everything from electronic catalogues to light effect simulator and cost calculators. We are using, among others, a mobile version of a light calculation program available online @ fagerhult.mobi

Louis Poulsen catalogue and LED ROI calculator

4. HIDE-N-SEEK

Ambivalence of a human nature: we spend fortunes on luxury goods in the time of recession, we speak sustainability losing lumens and kilowatts behind kilometers of coves and niches. Minimum is maximum. Like it or not, cove lighting is in trend. Check!

Terminal 3, Dubai Airport, UAE

5. WINDOW SHOPPING IS FREE

Shop windows have become a very distinctive separate form of visual art. Dedicated companies (we like and follow New Crazy Colours) are utilizing transmedia to further accentuate the idea. Does window display merchandizing demand special forms of light fittings?

DSquared2 Boutique, UAE

6. MATERIALIZE IT

From intangible waves to tangible walls, light becomes a decoration or a building material of its own. Soon we will be looking for a conventional luminaire but finding glowing surfaces. Manufacturers will be having hard time with all their punching and bending machines. Acquisition of a wallpaper factory or a concrete-mixer is definitely a plan.

LiTraCon (light transmitting concrete). Photo courtesy - Litracon, Hungary

7. TERMINATOR

Prognosis for 2020: LED will replace most of the light sources in different spheres of application. The most resistant to the assault is a T5 lamp (doesn't it look like a Jedi sword?) Fast technology shift plus shortage of ballast and gear components are the main causes of this penetration.

LED penetration by lighting application as efficacy improves and costs reduce:

Retail, Outdoor and Professional (compact fluorescent) - most affected sectors, Professional T5 - least impact of LED

Stay on the light side and May the Force be with you!

Light.In

Can You Hear It Ticking?

DUBAI, UAE

Rolex tower undoubtedly stands out of the fence of tall buildings populated Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road. Not only its ruled geometry but effect on a daylight and moonlit landscape that impress.
Pass it at noon, and the zenith Sun twinkles you across the sequence of opaque and transparent glass panels. Stop by after sunset and hundreds of sparkles flow down a colossal coal.

Brilliantly engineered and performed, LED strips hidden in the panels of glass flash controlled by DMX protocol, as if connected to a meticulous watch mechanism. And it is the noise of the Sheikh Zayed, otherwise you would hear it ticking.

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!

Moving in the darkness

A TUNNEL

Can you count how often you are in a complete darkness? The complete darkness derives us of certain sensations or skills that we obtain during our light experiences through years. A small proof of this: tunnels of one of the Dubai aqua-parks. Your brain sends no signals of whether it is going to be right or left turn, whether there are any obstacles on your way. Information is perceived this very moment of action incapable of any predictions. Navigating in light we 'plan' the route through the vision, darkness leaves us with the only question: what's next?

To cut it short: light operates our lives, darkness brings a pinch of fun

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.

Dance Dance Dance

DUBAI FOUNTAINS, Dubai, UAE

Unsurpassed: 275m long (the size of two football fields), water nozzles shoot water sprays to heights of over 150m (equivalent of a 50-storeyed building), 6600 lights and 50 coloured projectors provide the full spectrum of colour with a total output of 1,5 million lumen. These are the "dry" facts.

Unforgettable: we were trying to film it several times but would forget to press the record button... How can water and light create such plasticity and convey complex Arabic choreography? For the real thing, go Dubai Burj Khalifa. For our a-la b&w comic book Marvel-style video, click on play.