MEDIA FACADES FESTIVAL EUROPE 2010 is an urban media pilot project that interconnected seven European cities through the existing infrastructure of urban screens and media facades sited in public spaces. Artists and media designers developed site-specific art projects which transformed media facades into local stages, connecting public audiences virtually with participating places and opening a global window to create dialogue, to share dreams and exchange ideas.

MFF2010 is initiated by Public Art Lab / Berlin in cooperation with
iMAL / Brussels, m-cult / Helsinki, FACT / Liverpool, Ars Electronica Futurelab / Linz, Medialab-Prado / Madrid, Kitchen Budapest

via: Public Art Lab Berlin / Susa Pop – publicartlab.org,
MEDIA FACADES FESTIVAL EUROPE 2010 – mediafacades.eu

Mr Helmut Bien initiated the Luminale back in 2000 and realized the festival for the first time in 2002. The Luminale – Biennial of Lighting Culture is an international festival of lighting culture taking place every two years in Frankfurt am Main and the entire Rhine-Main region.

1. Mr. Bien, the Luminale is already a well established institution in the
area of light art.  Can you tell us about the origins of the festival?

In 2000 the lighting industry tradeshow moved from Hannover to Frankfurt.
Michael Peters from Messe Frankfurt asked me for an event concept that
should connect the city of Frankfurt with the new tradeshow called Light +
Building. For the days of the fair Frankfurt should become the meetingplace
for the whole world working with light. Not only the specialists and the
industry but also the creative people, the architects, designers and artists
and also the inhabitants and normal consumers should be involved. The idea
was to create a transdisciplinary festival about lighting and energy and the
qualities of urban living. Frankfurt should become a laboratory to see a
wide range of approaches with light.

 2. How did you personally came in touch with light art and what motivates
you to take all the effort to organise such an event?

In the late 80ties i worked in Berlin as a curator (Berliner Festspiele) and
in this time i made my first professional experiences with light, the
scenographic power of lighting. The idea to realize an exhibition about
lighting followed me since these days. Luminale was the chance to show this
power of light to change atmospheres and to re-organize spaces. I am a
little bit romantic in the classical sense of the poet Novalis. He explained
that the romantic idea is to give normal things a new and higher meaning.
Lighting design gives us the possibities to enchant the world. My friends of
the scenographic agency Skertzò in Paris called themselves 'engineers of
dreams'. That is also my personal motivation. And on this way i am enjoying
it to discover people, engineers, designers, artists who are working on the
same project. That creates the spirit of Luminale.

 3. Compared to other light festivals, what do you think makes the Luminale
a unique event?

Since 2002 when we started the first edition of Luminale, it is a great
success. A lot of people tried to copy the concept of the festival. Some of
these festivals are important for the local people, some are made to promote
the tourism, but the unique position of Luminale is the combination with the
most important trade fair of the lighting industry. Luminale is the festival
for the specialists and the local people. Luminale is well-known in the
worldwide community of lighting enthusiasts and specialists. So Luminale is
a pole position for careers of younger designers and artists. There are some
festivals much bigger than Luminale. But at the end of the day you have to
count the heads not the legs. Also Luminale is very popular but not a mass
consumption event with coloured buildings looking like sad clowns. The
unique combination with the trade fair gives Luminale the possibility to try
new technologies and approaches and to give a chance to the un-known. The
Media Facades Summit was such a project within Luminale.

 4. What are your plans for the Luminale 2012 in terms of content and size.
Is it still possible to top 2010?

The digitization of light is a fascinating subject. The storytelling with
light is a never ending challenge. Media Facades, Vjing, Projections are
great themes. On the other hand the questions of energy reduction, recycling
and sustainability. The third dimension is the development of the urban
life. The skyline and nightlife of Frankfurt are the stages of Luminale.

5. What are your biggest wishes and dreams for the long term development of
Luminale

The biggest wish is that Frankfurt and the whole region accept light as one
important dimension of its identity so that we can realize projects not only
for the short time of the festival. A masterplan for the whole region with
landmarks, light art, a green "balancity" which produces and consumes energy
in a way that enrichs the qualities of life.

The Indemann was designed by the Maastricht architecture firm Maurer United Architects as a symbol of the structural-political evolution of the former mining region near Inden. This 36 meter high, accessible steel sculpture, built on a brown coal dump, resembles in its form a primitive robot. The Indemann gets its unique brightness from Illumesh® – a semitransparent skin made of stainless steel mesh with interwoven LED profiles by GKD – Gebrüder Kufferath AG. During the day, the metallic surface shimmers and reflects light, then at night a computer-controlled light show comes to life. The worldwide patented system is a cooperative product of GKD and ag4 media facade GmbH, Cologne. The Indemann is the first public project in Germany where Illumesh® is in use. After the spectacular dress rehearsal at the beginning of August, which attracted already over 2.500 spectators, the official inauguration of the steel colossus is on September 5th.
The specially by ag4 developed and tailored show represents the transition of a changing cultural landscape and forms the basis for the atmospheric dense, smoothly shifting color and light patterns changes, as a symbol of the transformation from coal mining area towards a research-, educational and recreational region.

via: gkd.de, wikipedia.org

1211LIGHTING at the forefront of Acapulco’s re-birth creates first even environmental friendly LED lighting installation and one of the largest in México is setting new standards of excellence with lighting design in this popular tourist destination. Forum Imperial located at the center of Acapulco’s Diamante Zone is the first of three structures of Mundo Imperial. The 2060 square meter glass façade is illuminated by more than 89,000 individual LEDs. The result, a dazzling fusion of color-changing and signage effects is captivating passersby and intensifying the entertainment value and experience of visitors attending events.

“With construction just underway I know something big was about to begin,” says Manuel Padilla Tapia, president of 1211LIGHTING, which provided the design concept, LED solution and programming as well as consulting and installation services. “I envisioned a spectacular façade of active patterns of color and scrolling-text, inspiring a new icon of the city.”

The challenge was to encourage the mega developer and architect to replace the 1500W metal halides fixtures using color filters with energy-efficient LED solutions, providing greater design flexibility and a seamless façade of dynamic colors, motion graphics and basic billboard capabilities supporting a wide variety of content for real-time advertising and promotional opportunities. In addition to generating a new glow of modern sophistication with state-of-the-art LED technology in the Diamante Zone, 1211LIGHTING honored the pure engineering grandeur of the sophisticated architecture – far exceeding the original wall-wash design concept.

by: 1211lighting.com

“How it would be, if a house was dreaming”

555 KUBIK | facade projection | from urbanscreen on Vimeo.

The conception of this project consistently derives from its underlying architecture – the theoretic conception and visual pattern of the Hamburg Kunsthalle. The Basic idea of narration was to dissolve and break through the strict architecture of O. M. Ungers “Galerie der Gegenwart”. Resultant permeabilty of the solid facade uncovers different interpretations of conception, geometry and aesthetics expressed through graphics and movement. A situation of reflexivity evolves – describing the constitution and spacious perception of this location by means of the building itself.

by:rossarossa.de, urbanscreen.com
via: interactivearchitecture.org

The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, constructed by KSWA Architects, is sited in Overland park, a college campus suburb characterized by large surface parking lots and evenly scaled buildings of brown brick. The materials are derived from nature and from the local context. The exhibition galleries are housed in a solid light controlled volume that hovers above the open lobby function below. Regional whitish limestone is used in contrast to the adjacent buildings, making reference instead to local geology. The stone volume cantilevers beyond the building’s structural core to reveal a horizontal soffit that becomes a surface for a permanent exterior LED light installation, bringing the art experience to the outside.

Microcosm, is a permanent site specific light sculpture that measures 25 by 50 feet and utilizes 12,000 white led nodes. The Nerman Museum of Contemporany Art, Overland Park, Kansas was designed by architect Kyu Sung Woo and Villareal´s piece is installed in the entry way soffit.

by:villareal.net, kswa.com
via:nait5.wordpress.com, nermanmuseum.org

photos: © Timothy Hursley

For the ILUMA building in Singapore Realities United created a light and media facade, which had to be effective both during day and night. The project is part of a new development (Urban Entertainment Center) designed by WOHA architects.
In various ways this concept blurs boundaries as it actively merges the concept of a media screen with an ornamental architectural screen filtering air and light and as it blends abstract futuristic shapes with a 1970’s Vegas style.

The „screen“ facade is formed by a tessellated pattern made up by physical plastic bodies. A regular matrix of fluorescent lamps is superimposed onto (into) this idiosyncratic physical structure. That produces a display screen, which however is vividly distorted by the strong geometry of the individual light fixture and which is peppered by the regular perforations of the physical screen as well as by variations in the arrangements of the light fixture objects.
By intention a complex and ambivalent impression.

On one side there is the impression of an ultra large media screen, which is not yet fully there. It appears to be still deep frozen under a surface of ice, cracking and thawing. A herald of a fundamental change of architecture, which is about to transform from a static to a dynamic art.

On the other side the individual blinking crystals carry a strong reminiscence to the look of the “modern city” of the 20thThe idea of “entertainment” linked to flashing neon signs and excessive baroque carpets of light bulbs with its on-off moving aesthetic. Because there will be change. Being the first development inside the new officially promoted Bugis night life area of Singapore the project anticipates the arrival of several competitors over the next 15 years. Instead of starting a race in latest tech LED glamour, which the project would soon loose to its younger competitors the project concentrates on establishing a superb size and lighting power in combination with a striking visual appearance thereby building the claim of becoming the areas first and lasting land mark.

via: realities-united.de

In die Fassade der 2008 neu eröffneten Konzernzentrale der Energie AG Oberösterreich wurden 665 weisse geschoßhohe LED-Stäbe eingelassen, von denen jeder einzelne direkt ansteuerbar ist. Die Anordnung der Leuchten orientiert sich an der Struktur der Fassade. Unterschiedliche abstrakte Lichtanimationen übertragen die unregelmäßige Struktur der Fassade in die Ebene der Zeit. Das Gebäude wandelt sich in der Dunkelheit zu einem überdimensionalen Display, zu einer bewegten, abstrakten Lichtskulptur.

via: ledfassaden.at, pfaffenbichlerschreiber.org, weber-hofer.ch

OPENINGS is an interactive storefront installation, built into the façade of the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) gallery in Hollywood. Located at a border condition between the urban context of Hollywood Blvd. and the art gallery environment of LACE, OPENINGS uses architectural strategies and interactive media to address these two seemingly disparate zones. This project was developed during David Erdman’s UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design Superficial Superglow v2 winter quarter 2008 technology seminar and will be included in the forthcoming publication Contemporary Plasticity.

A system of modular vacuum-formed panels, LCD displays, and LED lights is built into both the interior and exterior sides of the LACE storefront wall. The white LEDs glow in intensity according to the motion and proximity of pedestrians on Hollywood Blvd’s ‘Walk Of Fame’. LCDs on the exterior side of the wall show animated text describing art exhibits culled from the 30-year history of LACE, while LCDs on the interior show text derived from artist Douglas McCulloh’s project ’60,000 Photographs in Hollywood’ describing and quoting various characters encountered on Hollywood Blvd.

OPENINGS functions as the active membrane between two zones on either side of the storefront wall, pulling Hollywood Blvd. into LACE gallery and pulling LACE gallery onto the street.

Andrea Boeck and Jihyun Kim are recent graduates of the UCLA Departments of Architecture + Urban Design and Design | Media Arts, respectively. Justin Lui is a current student of the UCLA Department of Design | Media Arts, and a graduate of the UCLA Department of Architecture + Urban Design.

via: archinect.com
Photos: Darrin Little

TARMLED SHINES BRIGHT AT COVENT GARDEN IN LONDON

“Constellation”

A work by United Visual Artists Ltd

UVA present their latest responsive installation commissioned by Covent Garden as part of their Delight Christmas campaign this year. “Constellation“ is a light-based sculpture which has been designed especially for the Covent Garden Market Halls.

TARMLED GmbH & Co. KG of Bochum, Germany supplied a total of 578, 2m long, double-sided, LED-strips, and 37 DPDUs (Data Power Distribution Units), to power the installation in the English capital that has become the talk of the town after just a few days of operation. In just 10 weeks TARMLED’s engineers developed double-sided, video-compatible LED-strips based on it’s TARMLED STRIP 25-modules that were premiered at the “PLASA 2008″ show. The LED strips were incorporated into polycarbonate tubes coated with a semitransparent reflective film, in accordance with UVA’s design. Together with 37 customised TARMLED DPDU’s, the tubes are allowed to hang elegantly in the space, as the DPDU’s allow for cable runs of maximum 20m from the fixture using a single CAT5e cable carrying data and power to each fixture. The 25mm pixel spacing of the TARMLED STRIP and UVA’s regular grid layout of the tubes allow for spectacular 3D-displays of voluminous, complex, geometric patterns and effects. The system is entirely driven by UVA’s d3 production system.

Technical details:

1156 x 2m strips of TARMLED STRIP 25
37 x TARMLED DPDUs customised for UVA
37 x Enttec Datagate
40 x Chromaflood 200
24 x SGM Palco 3
11.8km CAT5e cable
1.2km polycarbonate tube
135sqm semi-translucent mirror silver film
1.4km steel wire
92.480 LEDS
138,720 channels of DMX
1 x d3 production controller

Constellation is a 3-dimensional volumetric lighting installation. It is the first of its kind in the world and features 600 custom-made LED tubes elegantly encased in a one-way mirror film. Constellation was also individually controllable using a custom-designed control panel, giving the installation an intimate connection with the public. During the day it is a beautiful grid of chromed columns hanging elegantly in the space. At night it transforms into a 3-dimensional lighting display. Constellation was designed especially for the indoors of Covent Garden Market Halls. Launched as the flagship piece of the winter season program at Covent Garden 2008.

by/via: United Visual Artists, Tarmled