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!