Spotlight News
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The Light in Winter explores the meaning of light
Posted June 2010
The staging of the Meaning of Light as part of Melbourne’s winter celebration certainly lived up to its name, held outdoors at Federation Square on a rather chilly night in June. Organised by Paul Beale, of Electrolight, and his team, the speaker faculty represented an array of lighting expertise and each individual’s relationship with the medium.
The event attracted lighting and design industry types and those with an interest in light and its uses and effects. Despite the heaters provided by Federation Square not all onlookers lasted the distance. But one could at least imagine being transported to a fiery domain, bathed under the projection of the Square’s Big Screen. Along with a dazzling sequence of illuminated scenes and footage to support each of the speakers, the screen also featured a massive blazing ball of orange, depicting the installation piece by Rafael Lozano Hemmer commissioned by Federation Square for The Light in Winter.
June 4th saw the world premiere of Lozano-Hemmer’s Solar Equation, an animated, three-dimensional maquette of the Sun, 100 million times smaller than the real thing. If you haven’t seen it already, you can get down to Federation Square’s main square between sunset and midnight until July 4th, to experience this spectacular urban landmark.
Theatre lighting designer Rachel Burke’s contribution captivated the audience. She described in a lyrical letter the significant moments she has shared with her confidante, light.
“You have inspired me,” she said, “and given me a passionate cause and basis for work for more than two decades.”
Beginning with vignettes from her childhood, Burke took the audience on a lifetime’s journey of illumination, accompanied by images depicting the dramatic, effective and beautiful uses of light in the theatre.
“As Tasmanian light you revealed the purple rock of Mount Wellington, the sharp blue of the Derwent River and the striped detail in the needles of Casuarina trees that lined the river in front of our house.
“An ever-changing parade of shades and moods helping me to read the weather over the mountains, and the weather over the Derwent like a book.
She described her first plane trip:
“…the lights of Canberra, from the plane window. A pattern of dots and lines spread out like a magical bedspread underneath me.”
Attracted initially to performance, Burke shunned this after she “fell for” light.
“I didn’t think about how you worked in the theatre, I just basked in the glow and the thrill of the few performances that toured to Tasmania in those years.
“As a theatre designer you have allowed me to use you to support the visions of fellow designers, directors, choreographers and composers, but most importantly to tell stories.
“To use you to sculpt objects and bodies in space; to direct the gaze of the audience; to reveal and support the colours and textures of the stage; and to allow me to shape you like music.
“You aren’t easy to work with,” she said, “you’re very expensive, you’re time consuming, you don’t always behave in expected ways and you cost the environment dearly: fickle, frustrating and hard to control.”
A sentiment echoed by another participant in the Meaning of Light event, architectural lighting designer, Nathan Thompson.
“As I learn more about this untameable beast,” he told the audience, “I find myself standing in much the same position, still staring in wonder but finding it even more puzzling and its real potential maybe even more elusive. While the picture gets clearer it certainly gets no less bewildering.”
Describing light as a “nerdy problem that has to be wrestled with for the sake of beauty”, Thompson said he was first hooked on light at a Daddy Cool gig in his teens.
“It was a nerdy interest,” he said, “Its potential to make such luscious imagery if one could wrangle the technology. This place where art and science live together is very attractive to a nerdy kid, still is now.
“Lighting design, what I do, is brightness arrangement, the organisation of how light lands on things so as to control the way that things are seen.
“As neither real artist nor real engineer, I spend most of my working life trying to trick light into performing the way it needs to in order to mostly make places for fashionable indulgence.”
Thompson concluded that he has no idea of the meaning of light except that it is huge.
One man who tries to raise awareness of that hugeness is Joe Norster, one of the founders of the guerrilla lighting movement. He also told the crowd at Federation Square that he can’t define the meaning of light.
“What does light mean to me? It means being able to see if there’s food in the fridge at 2am. It means that a kid can read a book under the bed covers by torchlight. And it means that I tend to take notice of the way things change in the day.
“Guerilla lighting is a term that I borrowed from film and television. It’s the improvised use of found lighting quickly to provide the DOP (director of photography) with lighting for a scene.”
Dating back to 2003, Norster has been involved in creating ephemeral and magical moments of quality lighting to grab attention and convey messages, particularly about the wasteful uses of light.
Last year, he ran a series of guerrilla actions aimed at the Sydney VIVID light festival as a way to comment on what he saw as its “lack of public consultation involved in the Festival’s planning”.
These events consisted of a hundred Dolphin torches and students from UTS ‘let loose’ on Circular Quay.
“One of the first things we noticed was the spontaneous play that would arise as people picked up a torch and just shone it on a surface. Over about three hours we had hundreds of people stop and play with light.
“From very early on these nights have been about a few key things. Firstly they provide an environment for generating new ideas about light; they provide a workshop for professional lighting designers to test their concepts; and provide a platform for students to experiment and possibly for the first time use light in a creative way.
“This is, in essence, what light means to me.”
For more information about The Light in Winter, visit: www.fedsquare.com/thelightinwinter
Image: Paul Beale speaking at the recent “Meaning of Light
A ‘Solar Equation’ hits Federation Square
Posted June 2010
Solar Equation is a large-scale public art installation that consists of a faithful simulation of the Sun, 100 million times smaller than the real thing, which had its world debut as part of Melbourne’s “The Light in Winter” festival.
Designed by Mexican-Canadian electronic artist, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Solar Equation comprises the world’s largest spherical balloon, custom-manufactured for the project, which is tethered over Federation Square and animated using five projectors.
The solar animation on the balloon is generated by live mathematical equations that simulate the turbulence, flares and sunspots that can be seen on the surface of the Sun. This produces a constantly changing display that never repeats itself, giving viewers a glimpse of the majestic phenomena that are observable at the solar surface and that only relatively recent advances in astronomy have discovered. The project uses the latest SOHO and SDO solar observatory imaging available from NASA, overlaid with live animations derived from Navier-Stokes, reaction diffusion, perlin, particle systems and fractal flame equations.
Using an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, people may disturb the animations in real-time and select different fluid dynamic visualisations.
While pertinent environmental questions of global warming, drought, or UV radiation might arise from the contemplation of this piece, Solar Equation intends to likewise evoke romantic environments of ephemerality, mystery and paradox, such as those from Blake or Goethe.
“Every culture has a unique set of solar mythologies and this project seeks to be a platform for both the expression of traditional symbolism and the emergence of new stories,” said Lozano-Hemmer.
“Just like the installation depends on the world’s brightest projectors to exist, conceptually the piece is open for the public to make their own symbolic projection and interpretation.”
Some might experience the work as a traditional son-et-lumiere spectacle, other as a didactic visualisation of natural forces, while others as a call to action to harness the sustainability of solar power. Coincidentally, the sun’s generates its own energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium, the inert gas that is used to fly the maquette.
The balloon is tethered so that it is 20 metres above the ground, which is already a higher location from the vantage point of the lower side of the slanted square, the busy Swanston Street. The piece can be seen from trains arriving into Flinders Street station, from the Southbank across the river, and from downtown Melbourne. The tethering happens from the surrounding rooftops of all the buildings in Federation Square.
The solar maquette illuminates the square with 110,000 ANSI lumens of reflected projection. While this brightness is in itself a projection achievement only possible with the latest and most powerful projectors in the world, the size of the aerostat, the loss of brightness from tracking and the urban environment’s existing light levels all contribute to making the piece a calm, pleasant sight.
The sound component of the piece is a live channel of rumbles, crackles and bursts, generated by a computer and, is not a pre-recorded loop but a software simulation of solar activity
Solar Equation can be experienced at Federation Square every night until July 4th from sunset to midnight. For more information visit: www.fedsquare.com/thelightinwinter
Image: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s Solar Equation
Australian innovators shed new light on Sydney’s past
Posted June 2010
The Electric Canvas provided light art for some of Sydney’s most iconic buildings in a dazzling display of new light projection technology for Macquarie Visions, part of Vivid Sydney.
The annual festival of light, music and ideas also featured spectacular illumination of the Sydney Opera House sails.
Celebrating 200 years since Lachlan Macquarie’s 11-year tenure as Governor of NSW, The Electric Canvas transformed landmarks such as the State Library of NSW, NSW Parliament House and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music into an exciting light promenade along the length of Macquarie Street, from May 27th to June 20th.
The Electric Canvas was the first Australian company to utilise French PIGI systems to project scrolling colour and imagery onto structures and buildings back in 1997. Since then, the company has expanded to digital projection and used its innovative technologies to transform the Sydney Olympic stadium in the 2000 Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the 2006 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic ceremonies, along with many other large scale projects in Australia and internationally.
Locally, the team has been responsible for illuminating the sails of the Sydney Opera House with the vibrant works of artist Brian Eno during Vivid Sydney in 2009, bringing the National Gallery of Australia to life in a sea of colour for its 25th birthday and the annual tradition of lighting Sydney’s Town Hall every December.
Macquarie Visions provides The Electric Canvas with an opportunity to reveal new light projection technologies to an Australian audience, through large-scale projections that will move and evolve as they delve into intriguing stories from Australia’s rich past.
Just one of the treatments was a projection onto the facade of St Mary’s Cathedral - lighting the whole cathedral’s south face in a visually arresting and colourful moving projection, showcasing the more than 260 nation-founding projects established by Macquarie during his time as Governor 200 years ago.
For more information on The Electric Canvas visit: www.theelectriccanvas.com.au
For more information on Macquarie Visions visit: www.macquarievisions.com.au
Image by David Clare
IALD Announces 27th annual lighting design awards
Posted June 2010
Twenty-three winning projects representing projects from 12 countries comprise the winners of the 27th Annual International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD) International Lighting Design Awards winners.
Of the 23 winning projects announced recently, three entries earned Special Citations, 12 earned Awards of Merit and eight earned Awards of Excellence.
The highest point score winner across all categories, in addition to receiving an Award of Excellence for their project, receives The IALD Radiance Award for Excellence in Lighting Design. Speirs & Major Associates received this honour for the third straight year, this time accepted by Jonathan Speirs for his team's external lighting of the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Diane McNabb Rodriguez, associate IALD member and IALD International Lighting Design Awards chair, was thrilled with this year's recipients.
"The IALD received more than 200 awe-inspiring submissions in response to its call for entries. The sheer number of winners is evidence that this year's awards judges had their work cut out for them as the calibre of work submitted raised the standard for excellence in lighting design to a new level," she said.
As the longest-running award program recognising architectural lighting design excellence, receiving an IALD award nod is universally heralded as a top honour in the lighting design industry.
The list of winners is as follows:
RADIANCE AWARD
SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL NAHYAN MOSQUE, EXTERIOR LIGHTING, ABU DHABI, UAE
Lighting Design
• Jonathan Speirs
• Keith Bradshaw
• Iain Ruxton
• Carrie Donahue Bremner
• Francis Milloy
• Malcolm Innes
• Sandra Downie
• Speirs & Major Associates
Additional Credits
• Architects: Halcrow
• Photography © Alan Toft
AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL - NEW CONCEPT PROTOTYPE NEW YORK CITY, NY USA
Lighting Design
• David Singer, Principal
• Wesley Burdett (Partial)
• Alejandro Bulaevsky (Partial)
• Arc Light Design
FIRST NATIONAL BANK METRO CROSSING - GLASS FEATURE WALL COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA USA
Lighting Design
• David Raver, IALD, LC
• RDG Planning & Design
INFINITY BRIDGE STOCKTON ON TEES, UK
Lighting Design
• Jonathan Speirs
• Sandra Downie
• Karl Reger
• Iain Ruxton
• Speirs & Major Associates
THE NYBORG BRIDGES TWO HIGHWAY BRIDGES F45/46 ON HIGHWAY E20 IN DENMARK
Lighting Design
• Allan Ruberg
• Frida Schlyter
• Frederik Waneck Borello
• Christian Klinge
• AF - Hansen & Henneberg
UTAH STATE CAPITOL RESTORATION SALT LAKE CITY, UT USA
Lighting Design
• Randy Burkett, FIALD
• Ron Kurtz, IALD, LEED AP
• Susan Jennings, Associate IALD
• Mary Goodwin, Associate IALD
• Randy Burkett Lighting Design Inc
VASTRA ERIKSBERG CRANE AND DOCK GOTHEMBURG, SWEDEN
Lighting Design
• Kai Piippo, Responsible LD
• Deike Canzler, Project Leading LD
• Lina Färje, Project Leading LD
• Ljusarkitektur
AWARD OF EXCELLENCE & SUSTAINABILITY
NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM ATHENS, GREECE
Lighting Design
• Florence Lam
• Vasiliki Malakasi
• Matt Franks
• Katie Davies
• Arup Lighting
Image: Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque – exterior lighting by Speirs & Major Associates. Image © Alan Toft
New edition of Lighting Magazine released
Posted June 2010
The latest print edition of Lighting Magazine has just been released for June/July reading, with a focus on exterior lighting. This edition includes a range of technical articles as well as features which explore the cutting edge of design for outdoor environments and new uses for building facades. Here are a few highlights from the publication.
Lighting leads the new world of ‘media architecture’
In Germany recently, a group of interested professionals came together from a diverse range of disciplines to talk about the phenomenon known as media architecture.
It can best be described as the meeting point of physical and digital space, but it could be argued that its highest aspirations are often not realised through installations which are purely commercial in intent. But this is beginning to change. There are a number of organisations working together to produce interesting media façades which feature content other than advertising.
This process of fusion of architecture, design, engineering, digital applications, culture and media is throwing up new challenges and possibilities. And lighting designers are playing a key role in both the development of media architecture, especially media façades, as well as advancing the technology which has largely paved the way for its development. Namely LED (light emitting diode) advancements, whose products form the basis of most media façades and which are transforming buildings into dynamic screens.
If you look at the exterior of built forms as a skin, then this can be a breathing, changing organism. Light has literally made it possible for these skins to communicate their messages, as night-time experiences. But they needn’t be limited to this, as methods advance they could also play a unique part in the day-time experience of passers-by.
Most recent examples of this application of lighting and media include the Bayer headquarters in Leverkusen, the new Ars Electronica Center in Linz and Yasni Hotel in Dubai.
To read the full version of this story, and more, get a copy of the June print edition of Lighting Magazine. Click here for details on obtaining a copy of the magazine.
More than a lighting control system...
There’s a new way of lighting the outdoors that’s about to take Australia by storm! Ahead of worldwide trends to employ more environmentally friendly lighting, LeafNut is a unique lighting control and asset management system.
It taps into a growing market according to Australian distributors, WE-EF LIGHTING. At the recent Light+Building Fair held in Germany, there was a significant emphasis by manufacturers on the development of dimming and control technologies.
“This is becoming a very important part of exterior lighting” said WE-EF’s Kevin Rose, “the future for outdoor lighting includes the use of controllable light sources and dimmable electronic control gear; no different to how the market approaches interior lighting.”
LeafNut employs technology developed by UK-based Harvard Engineering. It allows users and managers of exterior lighting to intelligently control their exterior lighting asset individually or collectively. LeafNut is now in use in Europe; the City of Westminster in London has already installed over 1000 units and is installing a further 15,000 points before the 2012 Olympics. The County of Surrey in England has started rolling out some 90,000 points over the next five years.
LeafNut provides continual feedback about the operation of the luminaires, it monitors operation, power consumption, provides dimming control and will even predict end of lamp life.
“You can actually look at what’s happening to your lighting asset, see if a lamp has blown, see when lamps are near end of life, see if there are any faulty control gear units and much more…then it’s a matter of being able to take steps to address these issues in a planned and targeted way” said Kevin Rose.
To read the full version of this story, and more, get a copy of the June print edition of Lighting Magazine. Click here for details on obtaining a copy of the magazine.
Image courtesy of WE-EF Lighting
Projection art part of cultural program for Murray Bridge
Posted June 2010
Known for creating stunning animated building projections, Cindi Drennan and her team at Illuminart are also becoming known for bringing the latest in sound and lighting technologies to Australia’s country towns.
Her latest endeavour, The Burke Urban Light and Sound Spectacular, was an audiovisual projection art show created for the Murray Bridge Town Hall, to celebrate the opening of the new cultural precinct during the Ripples 2010 cultural program.
Staged earlier this month, the show involved local people who contributed stories, poetry, ideas and history of Murray Bridge and the region. Drennan brought all this material together in a whimsical collage called "The Ribbon", working with animators and composers in South Australia and interstate to composite all the different elements.
Some of the Murray Bridge people who were directly involved were local artist Nellie Rankine who created drawings of Pondi (the Murray Cod) and traditional lands, young musician Eli Ash, young artists who participated in Carclew animation workshops last year, and poetry was contributed by local writer Juan Yang, originally from China and who came to Murray Bridge in 2007. Other residents contributed suggestions and memories that became inspirations for the show, contributing to the uniqueness of this presentation.
The theme of the ribbon entwines through the projection to symbolise many things, from the Murray River itself, red tape around the river systems, connections between people and place, and the symbolic cutting of the ribbon to open the new venue inside the building.
The show comprised a looping ten minute presentation which ran from sunset each night, for three consecutive nights.
In other news, the Australia Council Inter-Arts Office announced its support by a Connections Residency grant for Drennan's research and development of new work. Drennan will be supported by SANYO Oceania in NSW and Mosaic AV in SA, working with a team of sculptors and fabricators to prototype new illuminated structures she calls Projection Sculptures. The project will take place over a 12 month period from July 2010, to develop a range of innovative light structures incorporating video projection.
In May this year Festivals Australia confirmed support of a new project during the Lights of Lobethal festival, working with the community to build textile based solar power lanterns. Illuminart will be involved in this project, which dovetails into the Interactive Light Trail project recently funded by the Australia Council.
For more information visit: www.illuminart.com.au
Lighting events: China Public Lighting Summit and SPARC
Posted June 2010
China Public Lighting Summit 2010
Most of the focus by national governments in recent years has been on reducing energy consumption from lighting in the residential sector. The European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia and others are in the process of phasing-out incandescent technologies in the home.
However public lighting also has a key role to play in lighting efficiency measures. The 2010 China Public Lighting Summit will help to focus attention on this important sector.
The Summit will bring together experts from governments companies and NGOs around the world to consider:
• Strategies to improve the energy efficiency of public lighting
• Strategies to address other environmental issues associated with public lighting, including mercury content of light sources and disposal of lamps at end-of-life
• Design, construction and maintenance of public lighting
• Intelligent roadway lighting management experience
• Technological trends in public lighting, including adoption of LEDs
• Trends in the development of the global public lighting industry
The Summit is presented by the City Illumination Committee of China Municipal Engineering Association in conjunction with Hong Kong Grandeur International Exhibition Group.
Participants in the Summit will be provided with a complimentary tour of Shanghai Expo.
When: September 15-17, 2010
Where: China Shanghai Everbright International Hotel
For further information contact: Maggie Li on tel: +86-15989121759 or email: maggie_gzhw@yahoo.com.cn or visit: www.cpls.org.cn
SPARC international lighting event 2011
SPARC enables participants to see, touch and experience the latest in lighting technology and attend educational seminars and social networking events. The event will feature:
• A world class lighting technology display
• An International speaker program
• A spectacular welcome ceremony and gala dinner
When: June 6-8, 2011
Where: Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf, Darling Island Wharf, Sydney, Australia
To register your interest and receive SPARC news, email: info@sparcevent.org or visit: www.sparcevent.org
