A large-scale interactive lighting installation, created by design studio atmos, was recently unveiled at the Camden Roundhouse.
Last month, Arboreal Lightning transformed sound and movement into an immersive and fluctuating light during the four-day Reverb Festival of Contemporary Classical Music.
The project mirrored the Roundhouse’s clock-like layout of 24 columns by bundling 24 strands of LEDs into a giant trunk that grew from the stage to arc over the colonnade and arches above.
1,500 metres of LED string were used for the installation and each of the 4,800 LED pixels glimmered individually. The distance between each LED was bespoke – hand-placed following computer printouts – to create an optical grid within the sculptural form.
The installation also had six power data supplies, each supporting 16 chains or 800 LED nodes using Philips’ proprietary network language.
Ten elaborate CNC-cut tree rings were delicately clamped to the listed structure of the building. Each ring, veined with ribs that carried the LED chains, was vaulted into the void and followed the steel structures like vines.
Audio programmer Adam Stark wrote the custom software, TreeJ, which controlled the pixels using a range of microphones and sophisticated audio analysis, all running off a MacBook Pro over Ethernet.
The project was commissioned by the Roundhouse venue and the Reverb Festival curator, musician Imogen Heap, who now plans to modify the installation and use it on her year-long world tour.
