Taxonomy: Light Installation

Berlin/Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Light is an immaterial medium and not visible to the human eye. Only through the surfaces of the objects surrounding us is the light scattered and reflected into our eyes. Light can therefore only be perceived and distinguished through this interrelationship and allows us to experience and see objects, places and spaces in ever new ways. This process results in an infinite number of variations of visual design with light, which can be used in lighting design. Selected light sources and illuminants are related or illuminated with different surfaces and materials, thus creating and controlling a variety of spatial effects. The installation investigates and illustrates the lighting process by filtering light through translucent material. Changing light colours, light intensities and different translucencies of the filters illustrate the influence of these factors in the spatial perception process.

Berlin, Germany

A LIGHTING CONCEPT FOR THE BERLIN WALL
Workshop program of the Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin

Today, the Berlin Wall, as a building that once so violently burned itself into the city, is hardly recognizable and comprehensible to passers-by. It is becoming increasingly difficult to remember the historical, social, and global political dimensions of this building and to pass it on to future generations.

The “Berlin Wall Project” marks the course of the former Berlin Wall with blue light stones. The light stones are lined up within sight of each other, form identification marks, and are synonymous with the Berlin Wall.

On the 155 km long stretch of the Wall, a red point of light moves at the speed of a pedestrian along with the blue light stones and continuously circles the former western sectors. The red dot of light is the main feature of the concept. Its endless circling makes the unity of the former border system clear. The time period of a complete circumambulation is two weeks.
On its way, the red light point relates to historical places and events connected with the Berlin Wall. When it reaches a place steeped in history – border crossings, memorials, or remains of the Wall – it triggers a theme-based light show for the duration of its stay.
For example, at Checkpoint Charlie, the incoming red light spot immerses the surroundings in increasingly intense red light – creating visual tension. Finally, projections of writing with quotations on the Cold War on Friedrichstrasse breakthrough and mark the scenery: “Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free”, John F. Kennedy 1963 (quotation example). For passers-by, the historical events are thus briefly brought into consciousness. After a few minutes the staging goes out and the red light spot continues its orbit.
In addition to Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate and the “White Crosses” memorial are also staged using lighting technology – other places that are important for the history of the Berlin Wall, that are being rediscovered or reassessed, can be integrated into the lighting concept at any time.

The position of the moving red light spot can be localized via a website. This enables interested parties to visit and experience the red light point and the temporary lighting scenes in the urban space.
The “Berlin Wall Project” marks the course of the former Berlin Wall at night and thus opens up a new dimension of perception. It complements the Berlin Wall History Mile and the Berlin Wall Trail, which are primarily limited to daytime perception. Light played a decisive role in securing the border installations.
… Light lines illuminated the death strip as bright as in the day so that favorable visibility conditions prevailed at night as well. In addition to barriers that were difficult to overcome and closely spaced border posts, the use of firearms was the third and decisive element of GDR border security … (Source: Overall Concept for the Memory of the Berlin Wall, ed.: Senate of Berlin, 2006)

The transparency of the Berlin light strip symbolizes the freedom gained at the same time the contours remind us of the past at night. The former course of the Wall becomes legible at night and forms an unmistakable identity of the city for the passer-by.

Alingsås, Sweden

LIVING ROOM UNDER THE HIGHWAY
Lighting in the 21th century
The invention of the light bulb as a mass product by Thomas Alva Edison at the end of the 19th century, for the first time in the history, allowed artificial lighting to turn night into a day. After initial euphoria and series of failed attempts to floodlight entire cities, question of quantity and quality of light required to perform certain tasks rose. A comprehensive catalogue of norms and regulations has been developed for lighting design in public spaces since then.
These regulations are, almost exclusively based on physiological aspects of the human eye, whereas psychological aspects of the human perception are completely ignored. The result is a quantity orientated light planning that focuses on providing uniform ambient lighting, primarily concerning the visibility of our environment. The architecture and the perceiving human being are disregarded.
In the midst of the 20th century, a new approach to designing with light was developed. The perception process was no longer understood as a pure reproduction of images , nor photographing of our environment, but as a subjective interpretation of the human being itself. This had far-reaching consequences for the lighting design, because we now realize that the light determines the process of perception. Consequently, the lighting design has a major influence in the way we perceive our build environment.
The architectural lighting and the lighting design in our private environments in the 21th century are increasingly focused on the perceiving human being, whereas the lighting for many public areas, such as streets and underpasses, remain dull, surreal and uninviting.
The light installation ‘Living room under the highway’ wants to raise awareness of the shortcomings in public lighting justified by safety and security concerns. It critically deals with the outdated public lighting, by contrasting it with the cliché of a typical private living room illumination. The living room represents an anarchistic way of lighting that almost naturally interacts with vivid light colours, strong contrasts and non-uniform light distribution. The result is an illumination, which puts emphasis on the wellbeing that positively contributes to the feeling of safety and security.
Reinhard Germer
 

Berlin, Germany

As active members of the Werkbund Society Berlin, the partners of L-PLAN were invited to present selected lighting design projects in the Werkbundgalerie Berlin for the exhibition of the Werkbund 2015 on the ‘UNESCO – International Year of Light’. For this occasion we also developed a light installation that works with daylight and artificial light in the spaces of the gallery. Simple transparent polycarbonate tubes with transparent suction cups attached to the inside of the windows of the gallery, refract, diffuse and reflect the natural light. Depending on the angle of the sunlight and the amount of light, a constantly changing light image is created within the sculpture. In the evening and night hours, the installation is illuminated from within the gallery by ceiling spots on light tracks with narrow-beam coloured artificial light. The sculpture becomes a light object for the perception from outside. Refraction of the light within the installation and mirror effects of the light hitting the window pane gives the object made of the simplest industrial materials a spherical appearance and great depth effect.

Frankfurt am Main, Germany

The Frankfurter Lichtgestöber is a modular and temporary lighting system for the Christmas season. In analogy to the snow flurry there are globes of different sizes and an irregularity in their distribution. This contributes to the playful character of this lighting. Different spatial situations can be individually designed. The Frankfurt light flurry can thus develop into a great idea with which the people living along the Zeil and the residents of Frankfurt can identify.
The primary construction of the lighting system consists of 44 steel cables that are strung across the street at a height of 15 m between the building facades. Between 10 and 15 modules with 3-6 globes of high-quality polycarbonate of various sizes are suspended from each cable. The effect of the flurry of light is created by the perspective effect of the cables one behind the other and the different sizes of the spheres. The cover of the spheres is clear and brilliant on the outside and matted on the inside, creating an effect of depth that makes the light source only dimly visible.
The spheres are equipped with dimmable LED illuminants (5V + PWM, 16-240 lumens, 0.5-5W per sphere). The light colour is warm white and can be adjusted on site. The globes can be controlled individually and are therefore dimmable individually or in groups. Thus, the installation can be fitted with various dynamic light scenes.