Birmingham Projection Bombing Project and Light Festival: Post 5: Researching what has been done elsewhere

Any Art Project I was ever involved in, going back to teaching myself Painting in the 70's or Sculpture in the 80's always began as a massive Research Project. There was no Internet in those days, and the only sources of information were Public Libraries and Museums. I spent weeks driving to the various Libraries around town and going through every book I could find on the subject, filling notebooks with notes and ideas, and making numerous photocopies of works that inspired me. I spent days in museums, the Louvres, the Jeu de Paume, the Orsay, and others around France filling notebooks with notes and sketches.

Some people may prefer standing in front of a blank canvas, wait for "Inspiration", and poke in the dark. I like to know Art History, study what has been done, figure out what I like and dislike, get inspired by something or somebody.
When I eventually started working, what came out took a life of it's own, and although it was in some ways inspired by things of the past, it was nevertheless my very own.
Things are much easier and faster now with Google, and the material available is getting more plentiful and better every day. So I spent a couple of days researching Light Sculptures and Light Installations, and collecting images.
They fall in a number of different categories, from the most basic to the most sophisticated:

1. CANDLES
This is actually how the huge Fête des Lumières in Lyon, France started over 100 years ago, and they actually still continue the tradition:

There are many such traditional light festivals, the biggest of all being Diwali in India, where the Country itself seen from space becomes an enormous Light Sculpture

made of millions of small ones:

2. BARE TUNGSTEN LIGHT BULBS

They can be hanging

or standing up

or seemingly floating as a cloud

or light up old fashion tin letters

They can be lined up and wired to form flashing letters

They can be hung in white or colored umbrellas

They can be stacked and glued together in shapes

They can form a tunnel canopy of multicolored stars

They can simply be laid on the ground

3. BARE FLUORESCENT BULBS AND STICKS

That can be as simple as a small group of 4 ft white sticks

or more sticks arranged to spell a message

or even more 8ft sticks to make a whole structure

It could a whole group of sculptures be made up of colored sticks

or a huge "Moon" made of all kinds of different fluorescent bulbs

The most elaborate and interesting such installation I have seen was in Lyon, and was made up of about 30 stick figures lined up in 3 rows over a pool of water, and lighting up in sequence to create the illusion of three runners racing.

4. CAST SHADOWS (or Cast Lights)
Again here, there is a very long tradition of shadow theatre in the East originating in China 2000 years ago, which is still very much alive in Indonesia. I have seen performances in Bali

It was imported to Europe by French missionaries in the 18th century, and was popular in 19th century France under the name "Ombres Françaises", as a precursor to Phantasmagoria and later cinema

It has in recent years been revived and developed further by Dance Companies such as Pilobilus and Attraction

Both of these examples involve rear projection on a translucent screen, but things can be as simple as a hanging light bulb surrounded by a ball of sticks and vines

or a spotlight casting the shadow of a sculpture on a wall

Even though it is designed for a gallery setting rather than the outdoors, I want to include this beautiful installation

A similar installation with multiple Polyhedrons was displayed at Burning Man in 2014

It can be argued that it is then more "Light Play" than "Shadow Play", and here are other examples from different parts of the world

We actually have a very talented Birmingham based Artist, Deedee Morrison, who has been doing large Public Installations of intricately cut Solar Powered Lanterns in major cities around the US, and participated in Light Dreams.
I could definitely see one of her pieces permanently installed along Rotary Trail

5. BLACK LIGHT
I have to admit that most of the "Black Light Paintings" I found on the Internet look to me like "Velvet Painting" with a twist.
But there are still some wonderful examples to be found. At its most basic, it can be a white line drawing on a dark wall

or white strings stretched in a pyramid shape across an outdoor square lined with UV lights

Or it can be a brightly colored painting with an 8 ft black light tube

colored strips of metal hung on a frame

a Polyhedron made of both panels and string

a suspended maze of overhead colored strings and a balloon

or a "ball of green and blue strings"

I still have a few spools of neon yellow, green and pink mason line left over from building my house that would probably glow very well under UV lighting.

6. BALLOONS

They were used very effectively on the Place Bellecour in Lyon in 2011

and a few years later these wonderful "Luminéoles" floated over the river. The only problem is the cost of Helium...

I would of course love a release of hot air lanterns Chinese style, but the City of Birmingham may nix that

7. LANTERNS
A whole lot of different things can fit under this category, basically anything translucent lighted from the inside, of any size, shape or color... Here again, the Chinese tradition goes back a couple thousand years, and is still alive and well, especially on Chinese New Year:

Again, they can be very simple, such as a 4 ft fluorescent tube running through five colored plastic jugs

or cylindrical stacks of water bottles with colored lights inside

or a rough column of sticks, bark and Chinese paper

or a "Fireball" made of tissue flames glued to a round paper lantern

A nice piece I saw in Lyon was made of 3 large colored teepees on the bank of the river.

I could see the sticks and bark concept above applied to teepees. Actually, something along these lines has already been done

The lanterns can be grouped and take any shape, such as this group of stylized figures

this flotilla of lighted floating "folded paper boats"(probably made of plastic)

these huge floating "pencils" also seen in Lyon

this floating moon

these three dimensional stars at Burning Man

or this group of luminous "rocks"(I can see a bunch of these scattered along the trail)

The Chinese Festivals often feature paper flowers, a whole menagerie of paper animals, and stylized "boats"

Some of the lanterns can be suspended in trees or over the trail, some can be on poles, some on the ground, some even attached to the side walls:

A Korean Artist does beautiful installations of luminous book covers enclosed in plexiglas

A Singapore Artist showed a group of plain colored "boxes"

Again in Lyon a few years ago, several groups of stylized "flowers/lamp shades"on curved stems

Sometimes, the line is blurred between sculpture and lighting fixture

This installation was at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens

Even a realistic sculpture of the Human form can become a Lantern of sorts

On the Texas State University Campus is a colorful interactive LED Sculpture called "Fish Bellies"

Which brings us to the next category:

8. RGB LED's
Which can be simply plain single color LED's used as small light bulbs defining shapes

But the big progress over the last few years has to do with RGB LED's, which can produce a whole range of colors, and can be computer controlled to create moving shapes and changes in color at will.
The most basic is a cube made of 8x8x8=512 RGB LED's soldered together in rows and columns, and controlled by a microprocessor and a computer that controls an Animation:

I looked into building one of these. The parts are cheap, one can get a kit for about $35, but after watching the assembly and programing video, I decided it was already way over my soldering and programing capabilities.
So just think of building a 32" Cube like this one

Or an even Bigger one

This a daunting feat of both engineering and programing, and I can only hope that we have somebody in Birmingham smart and crazy enough to attempt something like that...

Along the same lines, Japanese artist Makoto Tojiki uses hanging lights to create fabulous three-dimensional realistic light sculptures, which I suspect actually use much simpler technology to create the illusion of movement, with only basic white or color LED's, not RGB LED's