TEAMLAB created this beautiful installation reminiscent of Chinese sky lanterns, except the color of each can be controlled. The result is simply gorgeous.
Surprising patterns emerge as visitors walk through the installation:
All the lamps, seemingly scattered randomly, are placed in the space to form a continuous line when the two lamps closest to each other are connected with a line. The first lamp, responding to a person’s position, resonates to the closest two lamps, and these two lamps in turn resonate to other nearby lamps. This forms a chain reaction by passing through all lamps in one loop until the resonating action ends at the originating lamp. The planar arrangement of the lamps is staggered in a zigzag to fill a space, organized by a perfectly ordered grid. This is the first constraint. The second constraint is the height and width of the room and the pathway that people walk through, thus creating a “boundary condition.” The third constraint is that the lamps, when connected to the two closest lamps three-dimensionally, form a unicursal pattern with the same start and end points. The placement of lights was mathematically calculated so that it satisfies these constraints. The variability of the lamps’ direction and the average angle that creates a three-dimensional route were examined multiple times in order to achieve the final placement of the lamps.
• Forest of Resonating Lamps – One Stroke (YouTube / TEAMLABNET)