Lighting expert Robe has sponsored the 2019 Signal Festival in Prague, Czech Republic. The multi-platform event celebrates digital arts and technology.
A series of lighting and video installations turned sites and buildings across Prague into temporary gallery spaces for four days. The effect was created with multiple light sources including video mapping, large-format laser projections and moving light performances.
The 2019 event had additional resonance because it was 30 years since the Velvet Revolution, which saw the peaceful transfer of power from a one-party communist system to a modern parliamentary democracy. To mark this, various festival works touched on the themes of freedom of expression, change, transformation and evolution.
London-based visual artist and creative technologist Memo Akten utilised 32 Robe MegaPointes to create his installation in the main hall of the Czech Museum of Music in Prague’s Mala Strana.
While the MegaPointes were at the heart of the artwork, the interior was low-lit with eight Robe Divine 160 RGBW LED wash lights and 14 RobeStrobes.
The Simple Harmonic Motion for Lights at the Czech Museum of Music exhibition needed smoke to accentuate the light beams in the vast area, which meant disabling the fire alarms during the opening hours and having a fire crew and tender on standby.
The MegaPointes were rigged on a central truss supported by a four-legged ground support that was 11m (36ft) high and 18m (59ft) long, which enabled Memo to maximise the airspace and align the MegaPointes in an optimal central position.
While most of the lighting looks were in variations of white, a few blips into other colours were highly effective, and having a unit with CMY colour mixing helped these smooth transitions.
Prompted by the algorithm, the light beams swung around the hall like giant pendulums, all slightly out of sync and running at different speeds and trajectories. Every five minutes, the algorithmic timing was tuned to sync all 32 MegaPointes, bringing them into unison for a split second.
