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More than half-a-million people were drawn to the Luminaire De Cagna LED-light display at the 2012 Light Festival in Ghent, Belgium. Luminaire De Cagna became the main attraction of the Festival that included more than 30 other displays and exhibitions.

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Luminaire De Cagna is an Italian family business that has created light displays since 1930. They started with oil and carbine lights, moved on to electric and, since 2006, have used LED-lights exclusively. – Tuija Seipell

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A neat row of wooden louvers conceals a small sleeping chamber inside the attic staffroom of a hair salon in Hamamatsu, Japan. (more…)

happy chinese new year

LightArt has completed work on this eye-popping design straight from the pages of an Anne McCaffrey novel.

The project originated with a client we’d worked with before. I was onsite one day and the client shared his idea of creating a dragon out of our Varia Ecoresin material. He showed me the specific installation site, which is in a office building in Southern California. He described how he wanted the ugly cross bracing in the building to be covered by a sculpted dragon. It would need to cover six of the cross braces that fell right in the middle of the office space.

The plan called for creating two dragon bodies, each with its own head. The heads would face each other and look out over the lobby below at the main entrance. The office is full of color and all the walls are painted different colors, so the dragon would pick up on all those colors and stand out as the central feature of the space. The directive was for it to have lots of color, so we used over twenty different Varia colors. Each body has its own color scheme, one warm (yellow, reds and oranges) and the other cool (green, blues, and purples.) The mixing of the various Varia layers doubled and tripled the effect, with the colors overlaying each other – giving the appearance of a bold watercolor painting.

determining the perfect colors

each dragon has its own color scheme

For the lighting, we used color-changing RGB LED lights. Each section of the dragon is accentuated with the complementary color produced by the LEDs. Additionally, they can be programmed to dance – creating an effect that the dragon is actually moving. The lights are controlled from an iPad, so various effects can be achieved by the operator. To add a little whimsy, we even added smoke and sound effects to the dragon. This can amuse the casual passerby as these effects are triggered randomly.

lighting was key

iPad-controlled lighting effects

LightArt completed this extremely complex project under a tight deadline: we wanted it to be done in time for the start of the Chinese new year. 2012 is, after all, the Year of the Dragon. The challenge for the artisan on this job was to create a dragon that didn’t look cartoonish – one that was sculptural and sophisticated, yet not mean-looking. A job like this was either going to come out looking horribly kitschy or it would be a dramatic artistic success. There was no in-between or room for error on this one. Fortunately the artisans involved in this project were able to build a beautiful creation, one that stands out as a true celebration and spirt of the new year.

The facts:

• 75 feet long (both halves)
  
• 6 sections, 2 heads
  
• RGB LED lighting with full DMX control via iPad
  
• 3 months to build
  

See more about the making of this beastly modern wonder.

Learn more about Light Art.