LED Milan: International Festival of Light
through January 10 '11
Milan
Milan commemorates a hundred years since it became the first European city to have areas illuminated by electric light, with the second edition of the Lighting exhibition Design or LED festival.
The festival celebrates the evolution of lighting through to the latest advanced technologies and alternative energy resources, as well as the place that electric illumination has played in revolutionising the city. Well known lighting designers such as Karim Rashid, Gilbert Moity, Matteo Thun and Fabio Novembre, along with emerging talent, have created stunning light installations across the city, re-painting Milan as a 'luminous open air theatre.'
Some particularly playful interactive designs came from the masters students of Scuola Politecnica di Design.
The first is 'Diventa un angelo' or 'Become an angel', created by Alessandra Reda, Veronica
Perez and Susiana Tjiu; a swing installed in an urban square with wings made of light, allowing the sitter to "generate energy and lighten his own wings, to fly for a few minutes
and leave the stress behind."
Across one of the key bridges on the most ancient Milanese canal is 'Accendi il tuo naviglio' or 'Switch' by Ekaterina Vasilnko, Ernesto Sempere Garcia and Alvaro Insua Castro. This piece allows a moments interaction with the crossing of the water: Through a sliding handle the passers by can choose not only the colour of the bridge but also the intensity of reverberation on the water beneath.
Finally 'Mettiti in luce' or 'Light up yourself' by Luca Carretta, Maria Cristina Cerina and Dimitra Pavlidou is a seesaw, with lights at each end, which go on or off according to the motion of the riders. The designers say that they wish to "involve passers by, make them stop, play and reflect on the fact that one person’s action influences the other, creating and transmitting energy. The seesaw, as interpreted in the 'Mettiti in luce' installation becomes a metaphor for relation, socializing, interaction between people."
Diventa un angelo (Become an angel)
Accendi il tuo naviglio (Switch)
Mettiti in luce (Light up yourself)
