Luminosi Trees at Light Up Leicester 2022
Luminosi Trees is a large scale light and sound art installation. Four six metre high light trees accompanied by multi-channel music composition using gamelan gongs and based on the Fibonacci sequence of numbers.
The lights respond to the music in real-time, mapping movements and patterns of light across thousands of coloured LED pixels. The music creates a relaxing and calming space. Due to its Fibonacci base, the composition never repeats, forever spiralling outwards.
Light Up Leicester was a city-wide illuminated festival that lit up the streets from 3 - 6 March 2022. After the huge success of the first ever Light Up Leicester event in 2020, the illuminated festival of world-class art returned to Leicester to see the city streets filled again with illuminated interactive artworks as part of the free festival – and this year over 75,000 people came into Leicester to enjoy the festival over the four nights. This year’s festival included impressive, large-scale projects from some of the world’s most exciting and renowned artists. These awe-inspiring illuminations formed a trail of nine light-based installations, placed around the city centre for visitors to discover, be immersed by, and enjoy.
Light Up Leicester is delivered by Leicester City Council, ArtReach and BID Leicester. It has been made possible thanks to the support of Arts Council England.
Luminosi Trees are available either singly or as a group for festivals, events and illuminated trails.
Look out for them at the 40th Henley Festival in July.
Luminosi Trees
New work designed and made in 2021. Two trees were commissioned by Culture Creative/ Sony Music for an illuminated trail at Bedgebury Pinetum in December 2021. In 2022 we are looking forward to taking four trees on the road.
A Luminosi Tree is a six metre high metal structure. A trunk with twelve branches curving down radially from the top. Each branch has a large sphere on the end.
By day they’re an elegant pale green and white in a classic Art Deco style. People can walk underneath the five metre diameter parasol shaped canopy and hear the accompanying soundscape.
At night they transform with moving patterns of light synchronised to a soundscape. Their organic shapes like giant illumimated pulsing jellyfish.
People can walk under the canopy of lights and around the trunk. They can sit on the ground, on deckchairs, benches, logs, bales, etc.
There are four trees. They can work individually, as pairs or as a copse of four. Each sculpture has its own full-range sound system.
RGB LED pixel mapped patterns are triggered by audio. The organic movements and colours changing in correlation with the spectrum of the audio. Colours vary from muted autumnal ochres and greens to hot pinks and reds, pastel purples, pink, undersea blue, rainbow to white. It depends on the context they are in. For example illuminated trail, city square, light festival, music festival stage.
They can create a calming and relaxing atmosphere where people can relax and absorb the light, sound and size of the work. Soundscapes are composed for specific sites. It could be a seasonal tinkly woodland with birdsong and aeolian harps or a slow groove of gamalan gongs and organic non-repeating rhythms based on the Fibonacci sequence of numbers.
Weather Station Control
A fusion of nature and technology. The trees can respond to the wind via a unique weather station controller. This works live in real time so there are no loops or sequences repeating, nature is controlling the sound and light of the piece. Many of the sounds used in the soundscapes are from the natural world, particularly from the Lake District where we are based. Rivers, birds, the sea, red squirrels. Plus aeolian music recorded by Dan of wind driven instruments -see Howling Wire.
The fusion of nature and technology in rural or urban environments grounds the visitor to the present point in time.
2 x MIDI anemometers feeds into the installation so the AV elements of the piece respond to the speed of the wind. It never repeats. Cadences, tempo and pitch constantly evolve. People love the connection between the sculpture and the place, The anemometers are very sensitive and the response time of the the audio is quick so people can genuinely see and hear the connection, especially in light winds, A technician can trim the digital sails adjusting the sound to changing weather conditions.
The trees can work purely visually without their speakers instead taking a feed from a stage or sound system. They will respond in realtime to a performance, band or DJ. An audio feed from a festival stage into multiple Luminosi Trees could create an organic, pulsing spectacle!
DMX data output from the control system be used to can tie-in additional architectural LED fixtures in the landscape around the trees creating a much larger installation.
Human control
Ultrasonic beams beams can be fitted so the public can control elements of the installation themselves. This is more suited to places with lower audience numbers.
A mix of the above gives lots of parameters for time of day, audience and location.
The design and rigging method of the structures has a structural engineers rating for wind speeds up to 25 m/s (56 mph, storm force 10).
Luminosi Trees have very low power consumption. There are 672 pixels of light and a 2.1 sound system which together draw around 3A @ 240V per tree.