TOSHIBA LED lighting installation for Milan furniture festival

The site of installation was located in the Tortona District of Milan. The arch-shaped mirrors placed in regular intervals along the walls and crushed marble gravel covering the ground articulates the intricate exhibition space, approximately 120 square meters in area.

About 100 light bulb shaped objects are suspended throughout the entire space. Each object contains water and an LED that illuminates the surface of water from above. Furthermore, this object can be touched as to cradle it in both hands.

When people walk by, the bulbar objects become resplendent as if to illuminate the traces of movements. What is more, touching the bulb initiates the wave-like sequence of brightening and fading light. The palms of the cradling hand can feel the delicate pulsations, analogously akin to heartbeats, that synchronize with flickering light.

This project was realized as the result of the tripartite collaboration among Toshiba, Takram design engineering, and Ryo Matsui Architects, and took place at the Milano Salone in Italy.

This annual event not only functions as a trade fair for furniture but also includes diverse conventions for interior design, accessories, and lightings. In addition to the main venue of Fiera, there are various events sponsored by the brand-makers throughout Milan, and these in totality are called the “Milano Salone.” Moreover in recent times, Milano Salone has become famous as a trade fair for brand-makers.

Our theme for this installation, titled “Overture,” expresses the paradigm shift in lighting by the advent of new illuminative sources exemplified by LED. We sought to create experiences that physicalized the potentialities inculcated in the paradigm shift and associated new lighting technology. This, we envisioned to realize through the bulb-like objects that interact with people in response to their movements and the emergence of space with infinite expansion created by the arch-shaped mirrors. Each bulbar object contains an LED and high-tech sensing devices that control the flickering intervals of the LED according to its distance with a person. Furthermore, touching this object causes it to pulsate as if beating and cradling it in both hands will change the brightness and color of the LED. These experiences transcend the inanimate qualities of light provided by a mere hardware called fixtures, to embody Toshiba’s dedication towards “Light” that recognizes human emotion and sensitivities, and further pursues innovation in illumination and new relationship between humanity and light.

It is indeed rare for new technology to permeate our daily lives in the instant it is introduced to the world. In most cases, those take on extant technological forms to proliferate in our lives over time. For example, cars used to be called “Horseless Carriages.” In addition, TV was initially sold as furniture as the monitor was embedded into a cabinet. After such processes, the popular hesitation against new technology gradually decreases. Only then are these products allowed to shed their previous formal incarnations to reemerge with inherent forms engendered by technology. Needless to say, LED is not an exception.

The world we envision through this work is neither a challenge to prophesize how light ought to be in the future nor an homage to elegiac classicism. It is rather an act to determine the “present node” to seek the projective future that is rendered amorphous by advents of emergent technologies, and simultaneously a “declaration” to establish a direction from now on.

Imagine the knowledge and passion of engineers who developed the light bulbs. Imagine the dreams and desires of people who use and are stimulated by those lights. The light bulb, and the pulsation of civilization that is embodied in it, are sublime elements that occupies a place in our hearts. It is an ephemeral and at times intangible thing that might disappear if we take it for granted.

The question is, then, how to pass on and preserve these incommunicable and dynamic genetics that constitute the culture of light to the next generation. We believe it is our raison d’être, as those who exist presently, to entrust these delicate pulses to the next generation through LEDs amidst powerful wave of technological innovation.

The form that takes on the roundedness of light bulbs represents the culture of light heretofore. We took on the role to pass this object concomitant with delicate pulsations onto the next generation as we cradle it gently with both hands, as if to keep it alive.

The human relationship with light has long, deeply coexisted with the developments in architecture. Conversely it can be said that the advancements in lighting technology had continuously engendered rich expressions in spaces for human lives. At this juncture in time when the light source is about to shift from incandescent to the likes of LEDs, I thought it important to re-recognize the inseparable connections among light, space and humanity, and share the indications of transformation that is about to take place.

Thus, in order to pave way for the acceptance of this transformation, we proposed a place to contemplate the “present itself,” with its value system about to undergo a profound change. The mirrors act as a symbolic stylization and form deployed casually throughout the architectural space that expose the contemporaneity with twofold definitions; vis-à-vis, as of an existence between the past that must be passed down and the future resultant of transformations. Through the invocation of sceneries from the collective human memory, this is a space to witness the transfer of values from the past to the future.

The influence light has had on the human race must be immeasurable. We think the balance of prudence and, at times, bold creativity is necessary to envision a brighter and promising future. Our spatial composition with an infinite expansion suggests the innate possibilities and roles of light.

Pertaining to the light bulb section, the LED package made by Toshiba was utilized at the light source. (The bipartite package is composed of one highly luminescent white LED and another, slightly smaller LED closely resembling the incandescent color.)

A motor with hammer, contained in a metallic cylinder, generates the pulsations one can feel when touching this object. More specifically, pulsations are caused by the motor operating the hammer to hit the inner wall of the cylinder at a constant rhythm.

As for the creation of the transparent and lustrous glass, we enlisted the expertise of “Shotoku Glass” in Sumida-Ward, who we also worked with previously for the “Furin” exhibition with Toyo Ito. Since this company originally started in the Taisho-Era to manufacture glasses for light bulbs, they were able to meticulously control everything to the final finishes.

Attaching the glass and cylinder components is extremely easy. Unbeknownst, the mechanism makes use of magnets to allow the instantaneous assembly without the use of screws or drivers. When the holes in both glass and cylindrical components align, the magnets can be inserted and attach to the cylinders. As the result, the glass bulb and cylinder are fixed as if by a prop. The inverse was made to be equally simple as only the magnets are required to be removed.

There is one function that none of the visitors were told of, and that is the “mode conversion.” One can switch among the different modes by knocking in a specific interval on a portion of the cylinder. Among the parameters of colors and luminosity, there is a total of four modes to choose from.