In context of a 2014 summer semester project students from Vienna Technical University's Department for 3D Design and Model Construction were asked to develop a project which explored artificial light's potential to define a given space, and which in particular should encourage people to gather there.
The results are being presented during Vienna Design Week in what is, without question, one of the best designed exhibitions at this years festival: a blacked out lower ground floor space in Vienna's 3 District.
As ever, we know, understand and happily accept that such student projects are about how each student approached the set brief, how they develop the project in an academic context, and not about how an external observer rates the projects based on their own subjective, badly defined, criteria. That said a couple of the projects did particularly catch our attention.
Petpad by Markus Koliha and Gerhard Pfister comprises LEDs encased in a silicon weave and can either be worn on the body or laid on, wrapped round or hung over walls, benches, trees, meadows, whatever. It is however the wearing on the body aspect that most appealed to us; even though that is somewhat outwith the project brief. A plyable and free formable object Petpad can be wrapped round arms and legs and thus worn by, for example, cyclists, joggers or children, as a source of lighting, and so by extension of safety and security.
DripDrop from Jenny Grabenhofer reminded us in many ways of Azucena's Lampada Poltrona lamp: although as an object it bears no resemblance either functionally or formally to Luigi Caccia Dominioni’s 1979 classic. Essentially two orbs inside a cloth case, squeezing the orbs causes them to illuminate. Squeezing them a second time extinguishing the light. The clou of the system is that because there are two orbs, and because they are in a closed cloth case, you can hang DripDrop pretty much anywhere: from a tree, from a bedstead, over a fence and thus create an informal, temporary light source. Hang a lot of DripDrops together and you have informal party lighting.
A further highlight of the showcase for us was Sweet Svitla by Tetyana Vovk and Oleg Sementsiv, and the despite an overly sickly sweet kitsch presentation format that bordered on the immoral. Essentially a plastic bauble containing a fluorescent fluid illuminated by a black light LED, Sweet Svitla's charm comes from the fact that by hanging up a series of the baubles one can define a space, create borders without the need for physical separation. And because the bauble is open one can also add decorative elements making them a delightful option for gardens, verandas, function rooms or any other location where one requires a serene, unobtrusive, ambience.
