THE PROJECT
CITYSHAKE Innovation Studio presents Augmented Lighting, an exploration of light through innovation and art. The project takes its roots in the collaboration between Pierre Blaise Dionet and Ilmari Heikkinen from the innovation studio CITYSHAKE and glass artist Xavier Lenormand. Through the development of generative and interactive content that merges with the artist’s sculptures, the audience is taken onto a sensory journey of moving shapes, shimmering colors and lighting effects. Light and glass both possess the potential of infinite variations, and the dialogue created in the project opens the door to magical phenomena. With Augmented lighting, digital and traditional art forms are combined to provide an enhanced experience of light to the viewer.
BLACK SUN
Perched alone in the dark, this round sculpture pierced by a multitude of alveoli looks like a sleeping sun. Black on the sides and white at its center, it is crowned by a semi-circle of absolute darkness on the wall. The generative content is projected at the center of the piece, it inhabits its being and creates internal movements like the thousand pulsations that would animate a celestial body.
At times, the animation grows and brims over the creation to travel across the dark semi-circle in a migration of particles that finally come back to the heart of the sun. The light, the art piece and the wall become one, united by the blue light particles that animate the whole.
FRACTURED GOLD
This series of gold-gilded pieces seem to shine from an inner light, with little streams of perfectly round alveoli that make their way through the smooth and shinning surface of the sculptures. The generative content moves along the pieces like flows of lava and unites them in a dance of light and fire.
The sculptures refract light beams on their gold surfaces that become brighter with every passing stream, while the moving particles seem to emanate from inside the art work when the current enters the alveoli. These mesmerising organic flows create a unique dialogue between the generative content and the sculptures, which breath like beating hearts with a life of their own. This journey through fractured gold and fire takes the viewer onto a unique sensory experience of warm shapes and bright colours united by the flow of light.
MEDUSA
Floating in the air like mysterious jellyfish from another world, three sculptures enriched with uranium oxide overlook a little group of creations perched on a display stand. The interaction with the black light creates a true physical reaction that brings the pieces to life. They shimmer in a ballet of green and blue turquoise reflections, that seem to move inside the sculptures in a perfectly harmonious organic flow. Rotating slowly, the floating creations refract light beams on the neighboring walls, creating a multi-colored and enchanting choreography.
GALAXY
On a black canvas, about ten glass sculptures coexist like a galaxy of multi-colored stars. Animated by an infinity of moving particles, they seem to move, grow, come to life and then go back to sleep through the light flow that moves from one creation to another. The animated particles dance on the wall, reflect each other from one art piece to another and bring the structure alive, following the movements of the viewer who modulates the light effects by interacting with the generative content. The installation offers a glimpse into a true ecosystem made of light, forms and matter, a mesmerizing symphony in constant renewal, that throbs and breathes like a multitude of light beings in a universe with infinite possibilities.
XAVIER LENORMAND, GLASS ARTIST
Xavier Lenormand has been working on glass for over 20 years. At a cultural crossroads, with inspirations ranging from the United States to Japan, his work is at the forefront of French handicraft. He uses the traditional techniques of glass blowing, chiseling, carving and works, etc. on his pieces using a wide range of material and technics. Some are left smooth and glittering like stained glass, others are sandblasted and sculpted on, often gilded with gold leaves. For Xavier, “light has always been an inherent part of glass sculptures, because of the potential for dialogue that the material offers.” By interacting with the generative content of Augmented Lighting, his work is exalted by the contact with this light of a new kind.
CITYSHAKE INNOVATIVE ART STUDIO
Leading the production and concept, Pierre Blaise Dionet and Ilmari Heikkinen work on the development of the software and design of the content that interacts with the artwork. They create 3D generative content which is projected on the glass sculptures. The result is mesmerizing: the artwork gleams, refracts light beams, and suddenly seems to come to life. The movements on the glass surface are truly organic, a sensory experience that one has to witness to grasp the infinite possibilities of this light re-invented. The experience feels completely natural, but the preparatory work is complex: “We have a common matrix for most effects, Ilmari says, but they need to be tweaked for each sculpture so that the generative process is really spectacular.” Participation is also encouraged, as the audience is invited to engage with the creations through kinetic processes which enable a dialogue between the art pieces and the viewer.
