Through this light and sound installation, visitors immerse themselves in the world of bioluminescence by exploring and interacting with a multisensory space with their body, becoming bioluminescent themselves.
The artwork Luciferin is inspired by the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP.
Shimomura’s research on bioluminescence, the phenomenon where chemical reactions within living organisms produce light, involved studying the glowing jellyfish Aequorea victoria. From this jellyfish, he successfully isolated GFP, a fluorescent protein.
Various organisms, either flying in the air, living in the oceans, or sprouting from the ground, can glow. This quality has been proven to be replicable in laboratories. Finding the key to how a marine organism produces light unexpectedly, provided researchers with powerful tools to visualize cellular processes in action.
Luciferin explores the phenomena of bioluminescence, the skill organisms apply to glow in the dark – above and under the sea level, such as fireflies, or the jellyfish Aequorea Victoria, and the plankton Alexandrium Ostenfeldii.
The installation invites the audience to discover their curiosity and raises questions on exploring the unknown. The audience is called to communicate with the site, which in turn answers with ever-changing combinations of music, sound, and light. Bioluminescence is a powerful survival strategy. Sometimes it deters, sometimes it attracts.
Nobel Week Lights
Lighting up Stockholm during the darkest time of the year, Nobel Week Lights is an outdoor light art festival accessible for everyone.
KTH NAVET
The installation is created by students at SKH (Stockholms konstnärliga högskola), part of KTH NAVET Center, a multidisciplinary research hub. LUCIFERIN is created in collaboration with Costanza Julia Bani’s artistic research project All what Flickers and Glows.
SKH students:
Michael Forsberg, Visual Concept creator / Project Coordinator.
Lars Bomanson, Discovery of Curiosity, ongoing interactive sound and light installation
Emilia Sundberg, spiro – listen, ongoing interactive sound and light installation.
Supervisors:
Costanza Julia Bani (SKH), Roberto Bresin (KTH), Federico Favero (KTH), Foteini Kyriakidou (KTH)
Nobel Week Lights
Art lighting up Stockholm
Read about Nobel Week Lights, a free light art festival taking place in Stockholm during the darkest time of the year.