Light and Lightning

Rough Prototype
1000mmx1000mmx2300mm
Steel, Cardboard, RGB-LED, Arduino, Nature

We live in a hectic world. A modern employee needs to be flexible, resilient, creative, innovative, enthusiastic and always up to date. The industrialisation 4.0  dumps big data and clouds full of information just on our daily business. Social media like facebook and twitter are buzzing down on us like heavy rain. We interfere with so many inputs at the same time that there is hardly no time and space to recuperate energy to focus on essential.

The human being is not a machine. Many people struggle to keep up the same pace like their multimedia machines. But where do you go when you need a rest period urgently?

This installation brings peace and serenity to people who need get a rest. During the research phase for this project we analysed the light and soundsituation of peaceful environments. After taking lightsituations apart in their tangable and non tangable ingredients we decided to transfer the calming moment of a forest after a shower into an accessible format. This first prototype is a retreat from the office hectic. Take a seat and experience the light and sound character of the dripping forest.

Topic
This project is an international exchange program between KISD and Pasadena Art Center in Los Angeles.

What is light? What effect does light have on people? Our research about light started at the Philips Headquarter at Hightech Campus in Eindhoven. Philips has set up a whole world of light experience. Within a 3 hours tour we got a deep insight of lights ingredients and its influence on humans. Philips has several departments for various industries – we had a close look into the creation of office and workstation lights. That also included supermarkets and warehouses. Philips tries to create a lightsituations which are most natural to the human eye, not tiring and not stressing. They therefore favor a mix of natural and artificial light on the office desk.

I choose not to create another office light. I saw the imperative intent of Philips to create light which makes employees more durable and efficient to the gain of the company. I dislike this approach and took the forests light experience to create a artificial light situation within an office which provides workers with space to relax and to focus.

This rough prototype was created in Los Angeles when the KISD student group went over to the Pasadena School of arts. The size and shape originate from the given materials. The box, where you sit, watching the light situation and listen to forest sound, was a first test how to create an artificial light situation adopted from nature.