Photon


interactive light games


A magical light installation designed for the Lumiere festival in Durham, November 2009. Despite cold and rain locals and guests of Durham enjoyed the magical play with particles of light.
 
In two large projections on the ground in a narrow cobblestone street, thousands of glowing colourful elements float and twirl around, inviting the visitors to play with the ‘matter of light’, to dance, jump and interact with the shapes in a never-ending game.
To see more flick through the slides or jump to the video.
 
commissioned by Artichoke
for the Lumiere Festival
sound design by Andy Huntington, Extraversion
photography by Matthew Andrews and FIELD
Five game scenes alternated on the projections, presenting a rain of light, the light following your step, or beams of light that could be burst by the players.
See more pictures of the Photon installation
and stills in our flickr sets.
 
 

About the Process

 
With the installation we wanted to take a macro perspective on the smallest physical entity of light: the Photon. The magic of refracted light and the colour spectrum appearing in rainbows and through cut glass, is fascinating as ever, even in a digital age.
 
In our visuals, the photons are point-sized and grow into small beams the faster they fly, creating an idea of the unperceivable ’speed of light’. When overlaying, the colourful light multiplies to white light – the more actively visitors play in the installation, the brighter the scene becomes.
 
The Photon games are based on a particle engine, simulating forces like attraction and repel. Players are recognised with a custom motion tracking software, identifying body silhouettes in a life camera image of the scene.

About the Installation

 
In the first cold nights of this winter, we used the moonlight to install our Photon Games in Durham’s Silver Street. Work could only proceed at night as the street was busy with shoppers during the day.
 
The rigging on the facades of historic buildings and weather protection of all kit were the biggest technical challenges of the installation, all bravely mastered by the guys from Hi-Lights.
 
Cobblestone could not be expected to provide the best projection surface. But we liked the contrast between ancient stone and digital light, and therefore designed the visuals to appear clearly even on an uneven surface.
Fiddling with hardware and software settings in cold north-eastern nights.
 
For the Lumiere Festival, more than 50 artists transformed the historic city with installations, illuminations and performances using light.
 
With over 75,000 visitors in 4 days, the festival was a huge success and decided to be continued as a biennial collaboration of Artichoke and the Durham County Council.
 
See more pictures of the event in the Lumiere flickr pool.