Tube Lamps/Tubes in Tschumi

Tube Lamps/Tubes in Tschumi

The basic design of the Tube Lamp is inspired by a previous art project in which I used hydraulic cylinders. An around a felled tree trunk clamped machine moved the cut off tree top in the original position above their roots. The project was a try to reverse an irreversible handling like cutting a tree.

The movement of the hydraulic cylinders brought up the idea to create a lamp with a mechanical dimming system. Two in each other placed tubes, one that emits light, slides in or out one that is light-tight. In that way, you can control the amount of light that you need. Instead of using oil to generate the movement, I used compressed air to get a saver and clean system.

The movement of the lamp inspired me to use this in a display system. With 30 lamps I built a digital clock, each lamp created a segment of a digit. Later on, I presented a variation on this project called ‘Touch of Time’ at the Amsterdam Light Festival. The step from numbers to letters is a small one but it needs a different technique and more lamps to create each character. The organization of the Tschumi pavilion in Groningen (NL) gave me the opportunity to work this step out and present it last February in their glass pavilion in the city. Poem Reneé Luth wrote a text about the desire for the coming spring which was showed word by word by the installation.