super nature design: the scent of light

Super nature design, the shanghai-based multidisciplinary company present ‘the scent of light’ as a part of their first solo exhibition at xintiandi in shanghai, china until september 20th, 2012. the interactive lighting installation explores how the scent of light may be able to change our emotions and vision through a unique interactive experience.

this approach demonstrates the ability to stimulate cognitive senses in various ways, where their newest projects such as ‘floral’ and ‘spin’ express light in a visually enhancing performance. also showing at the exhibition are ‘lost in pascal’s triangle’ and ‘prisma1666‘, projects which designboom have previously covered. each ’the nature 
collection’ and ‘the scent of light’ compliment the works by providing references to how natural beauty can influence the creation process.

‘spin’ lighting installation

‘spin’ brings motion to emerge with the notion of light in the dark. it is an extension of kinetic illuminants that construct form and volume in a flexible manner according to speed output. the development is a fusion of two
creative processes that provides an aesthetic visual display, where the other draws an analytical demonstration of how light can perform and generate a wave frequency.

detail view of the blue swirls

effects created with a large volume of light 

‘floral’ lighting installation

‘floral’ provides a vivid sense of calmness and harmony as an integrated experience. it captures new memories in layers that reflect a timeframe as an evocative gesture for our cognitive senses. the intervention allows us to look into new perspectives and understand the wisdom of nature.

spectrum of color temperature lighting output

detail of the ‘floral’ type lighting pattern

‘the nature collection’

‘the nature collection’ is a series of natural specimens that exhibit the design process by explaining how the environment plays such an important role in our lives. the forms, color and texture provide growing opportunities to learn from. 

detailed examination of ‘the nature collection’

‘the nature collection’

the juxtaposition of light refraction and nature through a flask

‘the scent of light’ installation

‘the scent of light’ was conceived as an experimental exploration of the process and creation luminous volumumetric forms. the experience allows the user to discover a new dimension through the expression of unique emotions.

full view of the ‘scent light’

‘prisma1666′ installation

originally a collaboration between hong kong-based harald haraldsson, the piece is based on sir isaac newton’s experimental study conducted in 666, in which he used a glass prism to deconstruct a white beam of sunlight  into a full spectrum of color. the composition expresses a range of  translucent objects that radiate light in the same manner.

see more of designboom’s original coverage on ‘prisma1666′ here.

detail of chromatic light radiance

‘lost in pascal’s triangle’ installation

influenced by the mathematic formula of french mathematician blaise pascal, the interactive lighting structure is composed of 100 triangular LED lights which are supported within a network of various layered fluorescent triangles.

See more of designboom’s original coverage on ‘lost in pascal’s triangle’ here.

user interaction

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Lukoil Spb 2013. Interactive touchscreen display for Mopckne Npoekbi. User can experience a full walkthrough of the MN. Source

RZD: Transrussia 2013. Interactive touchscreen display for Russian Railways Logistics. User can experience a full walkthrough of the RRL. Source

The Color Project at IFP Media Center by MPC New York

Created by MPC New York in collaboration with artist Thompson Harrell, ‘The Color Project’explores narratives through colour, line, and form found in geographic satellite imagery. Utilising Google Earth together with custom software, the install spans over 27 HD screens pointing locations of the films that have been produced by IFP.

The formal motifs of each film location are explored in the form of a grid of 162 globes. In beautifully synchronicity, each view first plunges from space, coming to a stop on a single color in the landscape, creating a place-specific mosaic. Hopping from one location to the next, the piece reveals the character of Bogotá, Colombia (Maria Full of Grace), Cleveland, New York City, Florida (Stranger than Paradise), Vietnam and Virginia (The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers), among others, while also drawing attention to the contrast between the locations.

The team created a suite of sampling applications using node.js and MongoDB for storing, organising, and analysing over 60,000 colours that were collected. They created both an automated bot that combed each location for hours, as well as a web application that allowed them to hand curate location-specific architectural details and colours.

Using openFrameworks and Awesomium (an off-screen browser renderer), they built an automated sampling and recording interface to the Google Earth API and created a library of over 1,620 sequences, each spanning 1 minute and 30 seconds. Finally, Python and Nuke were utilised to composite the final five sequences, each containing 324 individual videos to make up the mosaic.

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Moonlight Rainbow Fountain in Seoul, South Korea

The Moonlight Rainbow Fountain is the world’s longest bridge fountain that set a Guinness World Record with nearly 10,000 LED nozzles that run along both sides that is 1,140m long, shooting out 190 tons of water per minute. Installed in September 2009 on the Banpo Bridge, former mayor of Seoul Oh Se-hoon declared that the bridge will further beautify the city and showcase Seoul’s eco-friendliness, as the water is pumped directly from the river itself and continuously recycled. The bridge has 38 water pumps and 380 nozzles on either side, which draw 190 tons of water per minute from the river 20 meters below the deck, and shoots as far as 43 meters horizontall

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Umpqua Retail Experiences (San Francisco Flagship Store). Inquisitive patrons are greeted with a set of projected motion graphics for the Umpqua logotype signage (powered by a 6-projector array). The exterior also includes a system of inviting information displays (The Spark Resource Center “Multiplex”) which cycles between animating modes that include transit information, weather feed, store events schedule, Twitter hooks with corresponding tweets, and short phrases designed to create intrigue for those passing by. The store space features large, multi-touch interactive walls (The Business Inspiration Wall, and The Great Wall) which tell stories of local businesses through video, stills and written content. The Product Ecosystem is an abstract universe of business objectives that customers can explore and see the many ways that Umpqua can satisfy those goals. Patrons can also browse Umpqua’s mobile offerings and get easy access to downloading apps to their devices. Source

BLINKDRINK transforms your phone from “that thing you play with when no one is talking to you at the bar” into a pint-sized party. Open the app, choose your color, and put your drink on top. BLINKDRINK uses the prism of your poison to keep time to whatever song is playing. You’re thinking, “iPhone as coaster? Sounds like a bad idea.” Well we put a lot of drinks on top of phones while making this thing- the only bad ideas generally happened afterward. Source

Art installation turned 3d project mapping interface. Source