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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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NEW ZEALAND

One of the key parameters in light perception is reflection. The reflection factor of material is always considered when making lighting calculations as the beam of light touches surfaces and either travels through them or is absorbed or bounced back thus creating various impressions. This is the essence of lighting design.

The best samples of lighting design are provided by nature though. New Zealand's environments could serve as the un-3D-redefined background for any sci-fi movie. The image itself is surrealistic enough, with the still water acting as a mirror enabling the rock chain literally fly high over the earth. No computer image superimposed. 100% natural.

photo: courtesy Dmitry Loshagin

Let the Sun in, bit by bit

HISTORY MUSEUM, DUBAI, UAE. Whilst other countries are building their lighting philosophies on the lack of the Sun, Middle East tradition is based on its abundance. A hut replica in the History Museum of Dubai illustrates logical and simple solution of letting in enough daylight and circulation of air. Bedhead is protected against direct light by a round-shaped rug. Good morning, Wisdom!

Gotham City

TV TOWER, StPetersburg, Russia

I invite you for a ride

Through the Gotham City night...

Not the brightest ditty, sorry! The experience is pretty poignant though! The TV Tower that I'm passing by every other day reminds an eery Christmas tree, with LEDs scintillating and flickering up and down and thus making the tower a focal point in the city as your eye is inevitably drawn to the glowing carcass. 

And at night the beam starts ferreting the skies. Sinister party!

Photo - courtesy: KOBA.

Programming - Neighbourghood Invited!

THE VIDEO ROBOTS of the Russian alternative artist Dolphin brings to a focus the topic of a big city rythm transforming at some point into a chaotic routine, the Brownian movement that turns us into robots. Scary picture! 

Our focus is on how the big city lights dominate the urban landscape. The rythm of switching on/off makes housings act as big screens. This way, we all contribute to the lighting scene. 

PS. Trying to figure which pattern we could make on OUR big Finnish housing... out to ask the neighbours :)

Illuminati

TALKING ABOUT FUTURE? How about colour-changing photochromic threads for a costume or a dress? Calvin Klein's take on transformation concept is featured in the latest issue of Vmagazine (digging the name, BTW :). Innovative materials, creative designs, striking results!

Visionaire 56 SOLAR, a limited edition fashion and art album, has taken the concept even further and developed photochromic inks for prining photography. Black'n'white artwork issue changes from all-white to pastels when exposed to direct sunlight. Collaboration with the today's most talented artists from Peter Lindbergh and Mario Sorrenti to Yoko Ono has turned the issue into a masterpiece of art and technology.

Image - courtesy: Vmagazine, Visionaire 56 Solar.

Flower kiosk spills light on streets

ORANGE FLOWER KIOSKS, St. Petersburg, Russia

Getting back to the idea of how urban landscapes are changed by spilled light. Here's one of numerous flower shops, belonging to the Orange chain in St. Petersburg. They use a opaque acryllic ceiling with warm fluo tubes as well as some high pressure sodium spotlights (one of the best imaginable light sources for lighting up plants and flowers). Panoramic windows let a passer-by feel the jungle and rain-forest atmosphere from inside. Light produces life and pours it out on the streets.

On Cars And More... On Cars

AT THE PALACE BRIDGE, StPetersburg, Russia

A shot from a horror movie: black cars attacking people! Er... almost :) and the most carnivorous is the Mercedes painted matt black! As if intended to emphasise the contrast, all the other cars are also black, but glossy black. We've noticed the numerous vehicles painted matt black and started figuring the purpose. Maybe we're wrong (then we'll be more than happy to learn the real reason!) but we came up with an idea that this matt paint doesn't reflect light and makes the automobiles invisible in the darkness. StPete's Stealth!

SOMEWHERE ON PETROGRADSKAYA STORONA, StPetersburg, Russia

A case of accidental lighting: taillights of a car coming out of an underground parking are overspread on walls making a dramatic appearance of the "actor", automatic fence acting as curtains...

PS. The guy at the BMW steering weel was very nice! He waited patiently until we took a picture of him... So - no worries, there was no danger! :)

Flying HIGH...

Dear RS, this picture is inspired by your comment (we LUV Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy :) and as I've recently caught this 'cosmic craving' from my colleague Fedor I've decided to place this a-ma-zing picture of Helix Nebula (aka the Eye of God as it is metaphorically called by the poets of our society :). Actually, it's a succesion - or, rather, a composite - of images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

The astronomers are being very close to us lighting freaks watching this "trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing gases" - we are humans, after all, and a human brain just cannot embrace the cosmic dimensions... at least my big brain can't :)

At its center is dying star which has ejected masses of dust and gas to form tentacle-like filaments stretching toward an outer rim composed of the same material. They say, our sun may look like this in several billion years.

I like the feeling of the words as they're slipping off my tongue... the Kohoutek 4-55 planetary nebula in the constellation Cygnus... A miraculous visual effect - but not to our bare eyes!

Photo - Courtesy: NASA, WIYN, NOAO, ESA, Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), & T. A. Rector (NRAO)

Inside Out

MERTENS HOUSE, St. Petersburg, Russia

Once Vas thought that since I am working on an outdoor project at work, I should say some word on how we see urban environment from outside. I found this idea interesting and went out. Here's the first shot in the series: Mertens House on Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg as seen in twilight. Zara put in some architectonic details and split pleasant yellowish light pouring outside through uneven mesh. Wet asphalt adds on!

Historical detail: the building was built in 1870 by A. Poten for Mertens Fur Shop. Now houses Zara clothes and house utencils.

Hussein + Moritz = Haute, Very Hot Couture!

A software, a microchip, a curcuit board, a cable joint, a processor, a memory disc, a clock... Packages of batteries and a monitor supporting LED diods... Doesn't read like couture at all! Yet it is - Hussein Chalayan's pioneering designs supported by new technologies and a hi-tech filling by Moritz Waldemeyer have turned a simple... cocktail... dress into an Extra-Terrestrial Party Dress! 

...Aaah I wantIwantIwant this...to shock the crowd at my next black tie party!

Photos - courtesy style.com

Accidental light art: fire

CHELYABINSK HIGHWAY, 118 km, Russia. On my biz trip to Chelyabinsk I first smelled smoke, then I saw it curling across the highway, then I stopped to picture this. Fire was erasing old grass and garbage along the road and further to fields. Presumably the fire was organized and under control: there was a fire truck and police stand by.

Accidental light art: disco

A MUSIC STORE, Yekaterinburg, Russia. Even salesmen at this CD-store suffered the boredom and flatness of the lighting used. Once they forgot to remove these Christmas decoration and found themselves in a place much more suitable for music. Imagine what happens when they blow at the balls!