Light Installation: Light Bearers

Anyone who has ever experienced the light show of a host of fireflies on a balmy summer night will understand the fascination of this installation. Because exactly such an experience was the inspiration and goal of the artist team around Mathieu Le Sourd (Maotik) for the project "Light Bearers". Together, they developed a natural-looking ecosystem that mimicked the phenomenon of light with the help of modern technologies.

The biggest challenge was to create an immersive environment that reconstructed the most natural ecosystem possible. The participating artists chose a DIY approach: they used industrial materials such as light bulbs and metal rods to make around 2,500 plants. To capture the organic ambience, they filled the bulbs with light-scattering tonic water, added plant-like metal bars and designed a soundscape of ambient and insect sounds.

The visitors stood in the middle of the light bulb field and could control the visual effects and sounds via infrared sensors. Each finger became a beam of light or a firefly. The result is a sculptural interactive environment, a blend of organic design, high tech and craftsmanship.

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