light house fluorescent tube installation. Interactive installation where 600 fluorescent lights react to sound based on programmed behaviors. powered by SONOS PLAY:3, PLAY:5 and SUB speakers, the ‘light house’ intervention sits in the middle of a studio comprised of four different rooms. each interior space is filled not only with speakers, but fluorescent light tubes that react to music and its different frequencies. Source

Sunset skateboards have created a line of transparent, light-up cruisers whose wheels illuminate with motion. the skateboards have transparent polycarbonate decks that come in a variety of vibrant colors and styles, including the ‘ghost’, a clear deck with white and red wheels, ‘the alien’, an all green machine, and the ‘princess’ which is pastel pink and blue. Source

The New Speed of Light. The New Speed of Light film captures the footballing genius of Leo Messi like you’ve never seen before. Exploring the moves that make him the best in the world in intricate detail through the use of light, all filmed at 1000 frames per second to create some amazing visuals. Source

Vivid Light Festival 2013. We See Saw’ is a collaborative play installation. array of pressure sensors on the seats, accelerometer’s on each See Saw and algorithms that rewarded the speed, rhythm, impact and collaborative movement (synced) between the three See Saws, to unlock dynamic visuals on a curved 10m LED screen.  Source

Burning Man Spaceship in Flames

Photos are just starting to emerge of this year’s Burning Man, the annual festival that draws tens of thousands to Nevada’s hot Black Rock Desert for one week each year to become a part of a special group dedicated to art, community, self-reliance and self-expression. This year, 61,000 people attended the near sold out event where they were able to witness first-hand the famous Burning Man figure (otherwise known as The Man) and the spaceship-like pavilion he’s standing on burn dramatically to the ground.

The art theme for Burning Man 2013 was Cargo Cult which is based on the history of the Melanesians worshiping a mysterious deity figure named John Frum. As the Burning Man website explains, “Our story begins in Melanesia during World War II. Thousands of American GIs suddenly descended on this South Sea island chain, bearing with them unimaginable riches: magical foodstuffs that never spoiled, inconceivable power sources. Just as abruptly the troops departed, leaving only broken, rusted Jeeps, crumpled beer cans, and the memory of Spam. To the astonished eyes of the natives, this was a miraculous occurrence, and they yearned for the return of abundance. Accordingly, they built totemic sky-craft in an attempt to summon back these Visitors and their legendary leader, the man the Melanesians called John Frum. They had formed a Cargo Cult.”

The impressive pavilion was designed by Lewis Zaumeyer.

Photo credits: Julia and Valerie L. and Jim Urquhart

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Origami-Style Street Art Nepal

Japan-based American artist Daas is one of 60 artists who came from all over the world to give Nepal an artistic facelift. They were invited to paint 75 site-specific murals on Nepal’s walls as part of an art project called Kolor Kathmandu, which began in January and will end on Thursday. Director of Kolor Kathmandu, Yuki Poudyal, was inspired by the street art that sprung up in western cities like Philadelphia and believed that Nepal’s capital could be beautified once again by art, inspiring and attracting visitors for years to come.

Artist Daas painted among other things a red panda and a colorful elephant. The red panda is a small mammal that lives in Kathmandu’s Rasuwa district. It’s on the endangered species list. Daas was excited to shed light on this problem as well as to bring color to the drab town. “Knowing that thousands of people, everyday, will see this huge, colorful painting — in a sea of grey, deteriorating buildings — felt like I was helping to breathe new life into the city. I wanted to give the people something to spark awareness as well as imagination,” he said.

The bright mural of the geometric elephant walking through a field of flowers was created with the assistance of children from the local Shikshantar School. Because painting supplies like scaffolding and ladders are hard to come by in Kathmandu, Daas had to improvise by attaching paintbrushes to 12-foot poles. “It was a crazy technique, but lent itself to interesting effects and mistakes,” Daas said.

Of his whole trip to Nepal, Daas reflected, “In Kathmandu, life was hard, but I felt alive. I find myself thinking about the wonderful people I met and the passion burning within them. They don’t see the struggle, they see the journey.”

Daas website

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Architects of Air installation

Architects of Air is a collection of walk-in light installations inside specially-made inflated plastic buildings. The experience of walking through this amazing space is like being ‘somewhere between a womb and a cathedral’. The monumental light sculpture is based in Nottingham, UK, and has traveled across 38 countries where over 2 million people have experienced it.

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Lighting installations in molecular biology

Mathias Gmachl of Loop.pH explains how the London design studio’s large-scale lighting installations help people relate to cutting-edge research in molecular biology in our next Designed in Hackney Day movie.

The studio aims to make science more accessible to people by creating environments in which they can experience the processes and structures first-hand, on an understandable scale. “We are trying to create artworks in the city that bring cutting-edge research in biology and in energy into the public sphere, into a park in the centre of the city, so people can actually relate to this research and get an understanding of what is about to happen to them.”

Since 2003, Gmachl and Rachel Wingfield’s Hackney-based studioloop.pH has combined science and design for projects ranging from community enhancement schemes in Hackney to installations at London’s Kensington Palace (above and below).

"The relationship with science is at the heart of what we do because we are very hungry researchers," says Gmachl.

"We’ve developed illuminated, self-supporting animated architectural textiles using an old textile technique, lace making, that’s brought up to an architectural scale then combined with parametric design software to create some very ephemeral light installations," he says.

Their research into metabolisms and energy flows began with a collaboration with British Nobel Prize-winning scientist John Walker, which led to large-scale interpretations of his molecular research and metabolic machines. “We took one of our textile techniques, based on taking a material and charging it up with energy, to create a molecular structure on a human scale,” he explains.

Collaboration is also important to Loop.pH’s work and Gmachl describes how creating artworks with residents on an east London estate to transform a notorious drug spot into a useable space was about “planting seeds” in the community. “It’s not about telling people what to do, it’s about trying to help find the opportunities and develop the skills so they can be practised,” he says.

"For a designer this is actually a difficult process, because designing is the thing that we consider ourselves to be best at and it’s the thing that we really want to do so to give up that level of control, to allow other people to design and to make the choices, is something that we have to learn to overcome."

Based in Stoke Newington, the Loop.pH studio is just around the corner from Dezeen’s offices. Dezeen’s Designed in Hackney initiative was launched to highlight the best architecture and design made in the borough, which was one of the five host boroughs for the London 2012 Olympic Games as well as being home to Dezeen’s offices.

Watch more movies from our Designed in Hackney Day or see more stories about design and architecture from Hackney. See all our stories about designs by Loop.pH »

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