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On the trail of light art: Mary-Anne Kyriakou

Posted February 2010

Following on from the success of Smart Light Sydney the world’s first digital light festival, festival director Mary-Anne Kyriakou was invited to take part in a number of light related festivals in recent months. Here, she provides an insight into a range of events from the death of the incandescent light bulb in The Netherlands, to Poland’s first ever artificial light festival.

The 4th edition of the Glow Artificial Light Festival in Eindhoven in The Netherlands, saw thousands of people taking to the streets every night.

Curated by Bettina Pelz and Tom Groll, the theme of the festival, ‘Being Public’, aimed to share a series of discussions around transformation of public space from a collective approach of light art works.

Pelz was interested in the form of space and its inclusions and restrictions by those who use the space as well negotiations of commercial versus private versus individual and natural processes that shape the space.

Capturing the theme, multimedia artist Dominik Lejman from Poland created a work ‘To pass is enough’. It used surveillance camera footage capturing the daytime of movement of people in a central square. The work was then re-interpreted as ghost like silhouetted forms through negative film techniques and each day of projection was built upon the previous until there appeared to be crowds passing over the pavement.

Signifying the change of times was a stunning work, ‘The Incandescent Bulb Memorial’, by Kai Piipo. It was concerned with the phase out of the incandescent light bulb since its first manufacture in 1891. Each night in the St Catharina Cemetery, Glow walker pilgrims arrived to experience the impact of this highly theatrical work. Low level illumination on the main path led the eye to a coffin and in the backdrop a glowing blue crucifix. Heightening the sense of drama was a reveal from the window opening of the coffin - a wonderful illusionary effect of a thousand lamps made by a single incandescent lamp created through the use of angled internal mirrors.

Drawing huge crowds nightly in the main square of Catherinaplain were the French troupe Le Snob. At precisely half past the hour the clock of the cathedral struck and the conductor appeared in a long dark rob, carrying two long batons creating lines of fire. Appearing from the crowd, eight musicians carrying large brass, woodwind and percussive instruments would effortlessly and magically glide to the direction of the conductor. She dramatically controlled their direction and movement by fire.

Other aspects of the festival included the Glow Light Lab by academics and lighting professionals at the Design Academy Eindhoven.

A brilliant exhibition of light art, ‘Change of the century’, was held at Kunst Licht Kunst museum in conjunction with Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst Gent Museum Belgium and the Glow Festival. This exhibition is on until March 2010 and features the works from the Italian Arte Povera movement as well as a works of Bruce Naumann and key light artists from the light art movement.

During late November, Poland hosted its first lighting festival. Also curated by Bettina Pelz and Tom Groll, the event carried on the theme of lighting being ‘public’.

Set in the reconstructed picturesque city of Gdansk which was flattened during WW2, the festival featured works from around 15 artists.

Local artist, Dorota Walentynowicz’s work, ‘Subversive Brilliance of Matter’ consisted of a projection producing a video image size of 4,000 metres square on the CTO Building. The work was a combination of image and sound in a kinetic installation. Walentynowicz said, “I deliberately used green as a reference to night vision and a search light, taking into account the political aspects of the building's location.”

The building is near the shipyard gate - a place where the tanks would gather in 1980 to fight for solidarity.

The projection aims to turn the building into a light sculpture, constructed from light rays that define its form by dynamic lines. Motion of the image is correlated with a concrete music composition based on pre-recorded city sounds, produced in cooperation with Dan Roy and Nick Roy (Yuva Motion UK).

The work of Laurenz Thienert’s visual piano instrument, along with Krzysztof Arszyn Topolski and Maciej Wojnicki sound composer and violinist, was featured at the medieval cathedral Centrum Kultury Korzenna.

My first impression was of unease that such forms and interpretation should fill a holy place. As I relaxed into the experience, the magnificent form of the architecture was constantly changed through free form improvisation which created a very unique and new music.

During the festival period the popular architecture forum Pecha Kucha  was held in the famous shipyard area and was well attended. Other talks included an international forum for discussion on light and public space.

Whilst giving a lecture at the Milan Polytechnic (Italy) I was fortunate to visit the Panze Estate and see the work of Dan Flavin. This is one of the largest private collections of light art in the world and features works by Bruce Naumann and James Turrell.

The Torino Light Festival Luce d’ artista was also being held, a large light art collection for public space. Works in neon featured throughout the city, a style of work that is similar to the Italian Arte Povera movement. I highly recommend this Festival if you are travelling in Milan during winter.

Mary-Anne Kyriakou can be contacted at: www.makproductions.com.au

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Mary-Anne Kyriakou
The Incandescent Bulb Memorial - Kai Piipo
 

Lighting Magazine features energy saving lighting technologies

Posted February 2010

The upcoming edition of Lighting Magazine includes a number of case studies of energy efficient lighting design including that of an office space in China which attempts to redefine office building performance, and the Lighting Council’s new quality certification scheme for LEDs.

Lighting Council launches LED Quality Scheme
In February 2010 Lighting Council Australia launched its quality certification scheme for Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting. The Solid State Lighting (SSL) Quality Scheme provides confidence to the market that the product carrying the Scheme’s label matches certain performance claims of its supplier. The Scheme is a response to major concerns about LED quality that continue to cast a shadow over the technology.

LEDs hold considerable promise to substantially increase energy efficiency across a range of lighting applications. The rapid development in the technology has resulted in an increasing number of new products on the Australian market. While there are some excellent products available, the Australian market is also being subjected to underperforming product that does not live up to its supplier’s claims. In its December 2009 edition Lighting Art and Science carried an article detailing experiences in testing LEDs at the Queensland University of Technology. In a statement typical of recent informed commentary from around the world the authors stated, “Many [LEDs] perform poorly or have failed to meet the specifications for the application that they were designed for.”

Such poor performing product can undermine confidence among users and discourage early adopters of the technology. This underperforming product has the potential to delay or otherwise compromise the substantial energy savings potential of LEDs. Furthermore, while the International Electrotechnology Commission and other organisations are preparing new LED standards, SSL technology standardisation both internationally and within Australia remains immature.

For these reasons Lighting Council Australia has introduced a certification program for its member companies supplying LED products.

PetroChina HQ sets the standard in lighting and control
When China’s largest oil and gas producer/distributor, PetroChina, embarked on the design and construction of its new headquarters, the company set out to redefine office building performance - operationally and environmentally. Located in the Beijing business district of Dongzhimen, PetroChina HQ incorporates four adjoining multi-storey buildings, and stands as an architectural embodiment of innovation and efficiency.

With input from the Beijing Design Institute during the design and construction phases, PetroChina HQ incorporates a range of energy-saving systems and advanced building management technologies. In fact, PetroChina HQ has set a new benchmark for efficiency, and has emerged as a potential reference case for the development of a China-specific ‘environmental performance’ building standard.

A key element of PetroChina’s new state-of-the-art headquarters is a sophisticated Philips Dynalite lighting control system. This, along with the latest energy-efficient luminaire technology from Philips, provides PetroChina with a powerful combination of lighting control flexibility and functionality.

The entire PetroChina HQ complex is supported by a single control and automation system founded on a streamlined integrated architecture. Here, a site-wide building services local area network (LAN) forms a communications backbone for all third-party control systems. The individual best-of-breed control systems, including the automated lighting control system, link into the central LAN via network bridges or gateways.

PetroChina HQ’s intelligent lighting control system is one of the key sustainability initiatives used in the building. It comprises a number of Philips Dynalite ballast and relay controllers, along with a network of multipurpose presence/photoelectric/infrared sensors and user-control panel interfaces. All components are linked via Philips Dynalite’s sophisticated peer-to-peer communications serial bus network, DyNet (one per floor). Each DyNet network is integrated with the central LAN via a TCP/IP gateway.

The lighting control system is configured and managed using a Philips Dynalite DLight III MapView graphical user interface via a centralised supervisory management system. MapView provides a visual schematic of the entire lighting system, plus allows easy configuration of timed events and facilitates scene adjustments. From here, operators are able to identify every light fixture, circuit and channel across the entire complex and control them automatically or manually.

Trademarks: Dynalite and DyNet are trademarks, service marks or registered trademarks of Dynalite Intelligent Light Pty Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

To read these reports in full see the February print edition of Lighting Art & Science Magazine, out soon. Click here  for more information on subscribing.

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PetroChina HQ, Beijing China

New ‘mind controlled’ lighting instrument

Posted February 2010

A work entitled ‘The Veil’ was recently exhibited by Australian designers Mary-Anne Kyriakou and Rick Cale, at various lighting festivals in Europe and is generating much interest at home as well.

‘The Veil’, explores the potential for artificial light environments to be controlled by the mind in a first generation system. The outcome for an individual accessing a neural environment with this technology is the capability of controlling light effects that may bring them benefit.
The brain device accesses a virtual environment where a number of programmed actions are assigned to a number of different coloured light effects. With the aid of the brain device, the user is trained to carry out a number of actions, namely, push, pull and lift with their mind. After a training period of approximately seven minutes, the user is then able to start manipulating the light through the several learnt mind actions. The system is calibrated to the user and their profile is stored.

As a means of demonstration, a music composition for electric piano by Kyriakou counterpoints around the frequency of 442 Hz to provide a calming constant point of reference for the person being trained on the device.

Kyriakou believes ‘The Veil’ installation can be used to create a positive calming transitional mind space in a number of environments including the home or in situation requiring reconciliation. In this case, multi users with a facilitator work together to reach a particular coloured light/colour temperature. In this scenario, mind space with the assistance of the brain device provides a transitional environment before entering the next experience.

“Not everyone can be a yoga or meditation master and this concept provides an immediate response for all users to heighten their state of calm,” said Kyriakou.

“Studies in colour light are inconclusive and this technology with medical science and design science has the opportunity to provide greater insight into artificial lighting environments.”

The work also points towards futurist environments whereby city space eg train and bus stations will be controlled by the experience of the people moving through public space. These environments will be aided with augmented reality, surveillance, intelligent facade technology and GPS. Public space outcomes should result in positive uplifting experiences for the public. Such changes may include minor changes in the visual and aural environments, according to Kyriakou.

ABC news television aired a segment on the “brain device” in December 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s0Li6YwVkE

The Veil is a continuation of work created by Mary-Anne Kyriakou to introduce new technology with light for positive public and private engagement.

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Exhibition of ‘The Veil’ at Narracje Light Festival, Poland – November 2009. Image by Philipp Haas Netherlands

Installations to reveal ‘public rooms’ in Luminale 2010

Posted February 2010

Lighting animates, changes the atmosphere, lightens the mood and emotions. Lighting installations reveal public rooms, which would otherwise have lived in the shadows, according to the organisers of this year’s Luminale festival in Germany.

The fifth biennial event for lighting will be taking place in Frankfurt Rhine Main from April 11-16th, at the same time as the leading international fair Light+Building. Around 150 lighting events are in preparation - artists, designers, performance and visual artists, VJ & DJs, architects and engineers have accepted the offer from Luminale. Their work will transform countless museums, galleries, industrial architecture, building sites, monuments, façades, squares and parks into an international lighting laboratory for the duration of the fair.

The Luminale in 2010 becomes more international than ever. Light artists from Italy are organising their own exhibition; Dutch designers will present themselves in a special show; from Hong Kong and Singapore light projects have been announced. Designers from Australia, France, New York and London will also be participating.

The Luminale will start with a Pecha Kucha Light Night, featuring lectures for architects and designers, organised by the German Architecture Museum (DAM) with Jazzunique.

The lectures will present stimulating projects which are technologically innovative and which improve people’s quality of life and the environment. As well as light installations with entertainment qualities, pieces of art and art actions in the public space - installations which are interactive, tell stories and make the social dimensions of the light visible.

For more information email: Luminale@westermann-kommunikation.de or visit: http://luminapolis.com/

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Pecha Kucha Light Night will kick off the fifth biennial event for lighting in Germany – the Luminale

EnergySmart Buildings – for the ‘green’ building sector

Posted February 2010

Whether or not the CPRS is enacted in Australia or a carbon tax is implemented, there has been important work done in recent years in terms of what kind of schemes could be introduced to improve the energy efficient operation of new and existing commercial buildings.

To service this market for energy efficient technologies, management and design of commercial buildings, Lighting Magazine has created a new supplement, known as EnergySmart Buildings.

Being launched in the Who’s Who of Lighting edition, in early April, the supplement will feature up to 40 pages of the latest commentary from experts in the field and input from the Australian Government.

It has been reported that commercial buildings are responsible for at least 10 per cent of Australia’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.

The sector provides more potential for quick, deep and cost effective greenhouse gas mitigation than any other industry. According to WSP Lincolne Scott an efficient building scheme could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our cities by 50 per cent by 2020 using existing technology. There are also the added benefits of savings on energy bills, maintenance costs and productivity improvements as well as increased building value.

EnergySmart Buildings will include the latest information on the Australian Government’s aims to improve energy efficiency through a combination of proposed regulation, financial support, and information and support to industry.

It is at the design stage that we have the opportunity to make some of the cheapest and most effective interventions in the environmental performance of a building. But we also need to address the performance of buildings over their operating lives.

In Australia, only about two per cent of our office building stock is demolished and rebuilt each year. Between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of a commercial building’s total greenhouse gas emissions are produced during the operational phase.

Existing buildings offer some of our most cost-effective pathways to environmental gain, especially in areas such as energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions reduction. While these benefits are there, the interests of building owners, managers and tenants do not always coincide.

EnergySmart Buildings will showcase the work being done by property managers and engineering specialists who are leading the evolution in lighting and energy efficiency.

To see a mock up of EnergySmart Buildings click here.

The supplement will contain a range of critical information for the industry - not just lighting professionals, but the broader industries involved in the commercial office building sector – about the policy environment in regard to energy efficiency, Government directions, the latest technologies, the role of lighting and building management systems and the benefits of deploying energy efficiency measures.

The first edition of the supplement, being developed now, has received tremendous support from industry. There are four industry sponsors and a number of leading companies also advertising in EnergySmart Buildings.

Additionally, EnergySmart Buildings will have a wider distribution than Lighting Magazine. There will be around 3,000 copies ‘run on’ of the supplement which will be distributed via industry channels – namely to a selection of members of the Facility Management Association of Australia and the Energy Efficiency Council, to name a few. The sponsors will also disseminate copies of the publication as well as organisers of the Light+Building fair in Germany, and the Guangzhou Intl Lighting Exhibition in June 2010. In total, the circulation of EnergySmart Buildings will be around 10,000 copies.

If you are interested in marketing your company to this sector, there are a few advertising positions left but you will have to be quick – bookings close in February.

For more information contact the editor, Paula Wallace on tel: +61 (0) 404 088 501 or email: paulamwallace@bigpond.com

Competition offers young designers the chance of a lifetime

Posted February 2010

An architectural lighting design competition is offering young professional lighting designers the chance to demonstrate their skills and creativity and to have their work reviewed by a respected international jury.

Presented by the Professional Lighting Designers’ Association (PLDA) and Philips, is welcoming expressions of interest up until February 12th, 2010.

If selected for the shortlist, the lighting designers will receive remuneration of 1,000 Euros to develop a temporary lighting design scheme. The winning design will be realised, and the winning designer awarded a further 9000 Euros and given the opportunity to present their project at the PLDA Celebration of Light in Frankfurt on April 13th, 2010.

The brief is to design a temporary exterior architectural lighting scheme for St. Peter’s Church in Frankfurt-on-Main. The project would be part of the Luminale exhibition run in the city of Frankfurt during Light+Building.

A respected international jury will select up to four designers from the Expressions of Interest submitted. These designers will be announced on February 22nd, 2010. They will be provided with a ground plan with dimensions, elevations and images, and asked to develop a temporary lighting design scheme for the building. The design submitted must be the respective designers’ original work.

On receipt of the design concepts the jury will further select an Overall Winner. The designs will be judged against a number of criteria including the creativity of the scheme, the response to the context and architecture of building, the potential energy use and the feasibility/practicality of realising the design as a temporary installation (ideally it should be installed within one day).

The authors of the shortlisted designs will have their travel and accommodation in Frankfurt paid from April 10-14th, 2010, plus entrance tickets to Light+Building.

Lighting designers under the age of 35 are invited to forward an Expression of Interest to PLDA Head Office by email: ihogrebe@pld-a.org.

The EOI should give reasons why the respective designer should be selected to design the temporary scheme and include a short CV.