By EFLA | Kevan Shaw Lighting Design
The Art Installation at the facade of Lysverket enriches the KODE collection while gifting art, light, and color to Bergen and its visitors. Three panels on an otherwise blind façade of the building are illuminated with a sequence of coloured forms. Callum Innes conceptualised the piece and determined the sequence of patterns and colours.
Technically the artwork was developed by EFLA | Kevan Shaw Lighting Design. We intended that the light sources should be invisible. These are integrated in folded aluminium enclosures set within the recess depth of the panels. The very close offset of the lighting and the need for sharp, defined changes of colour required a very tight optical control of the beam. Following trials in the design studio we chose the Lumenpulse Lumenfacade Nano with 8 degree optics. A site trial confirmed the selection and demonstrated the colour and effects with the wall texture.
Lighting control is through DMX RDM protocol from a Pharos system supplied by Stockholm Lighting and programmed by Jim Anderson.
The installation was completed by LOS Elektro, a local contractor, in early March with final commissioning completed by Callum, Kevan and Jim on 25 March. The installation will be inaugurated on 10th of April.
The artwork creates more than an illumination of a flat area. The texture of the walls becomes a working surface with the same variation found in choosing canvas, board, linen or paper to apply paint. The 8 degree optic at such a close offset also affects the mixing of the colour across the surface providing subtle variations of bringing a brushstroke like appearance to the colours. The installation is located adjacent to the lake in the city centre affording long views amplified by reflections in the water, and intimate views from the path adjacent to the building. The pattern changes on one of the three panels every 3 minutes, if you glance at it as you walk along the lake side, each time you look it will have changed so you might wonder if you saw something different the last time you looked at it. The combinations change so when you come at a different time or day you will discover a different visual experience.
Each evening the piece is switched on exactly at sunset with the colours intensifying as the dusk falls. In winter it will switch on at 6AM and off at sunrise with the dawn slowly washing the colours away.
