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