For the Biennale Internationale Design Saint-Etienne 2015 Studio Dennis Parren created several light installations and sculptures for the Musée de la Mine in St. Etienne, to show how light can be controlled to create beautiful patterns that tell us the story of light, colours, shadows and reflections.
Gradients
"Light is something we all think we understand. It can be white, it can be coloured, it is bright, can be reflected and casts shadows. With ‘Gradient’ we wanted to show how colours blend.” says Dennis Parren.
As in other work by Studio Dennis Parren, 'Gradient' challenges you to stop and think about what you are actually looking at, as the eyes and mind try to make sense of what you are seeing.
Like the sun, white light consists of Red, Green & Blue light (RGB) and by carefully placing white expanded polystyrene shapes in a pattern under the RGB lights, they controlled how much light each shape reflects and which colours blend, resulting in a magical field of different coloured gradients.
By rotating the position of the red, green and blue light, different gradients became visible before making a dramatic pause to white light showing that this is no trick, just the simple blending of colours on white shaped material.
Reflections
Colours are seen when light reflects. With ‘Reflections’ Studio Dennis Parren wanted to show how light reflects by trapping it inside different shapes. Catching the light and forcing it into a shape amplifies the reflection as it has nowhere to go. Dennis: "This results in a magical spectacle of bright colourful, almost fluorescent, light." For ‘Reflections’ the studio used exactly the same light set-up as with ‘Gradients’, only now having a completely different result, giving us yet another insight into the mystery of light and colour.
Dotted Lamp
LED technology has been a revolution for the light industry. A very popular, mass produced and cheap product is the LED strip, most often seen hidden away behind panels or underneath sufaces. Studio Dennis Parren wanted to do something different with the LED strip, something new, showing that there are other ways to use such a great product.
The Dotted Lamp uses the LED strip to show that it can be transformed into a delightful, simple and elegant lamp. In this case the design was inspired by the colourful an freely floating, dreamy jellyfish, a marvel of nature.
Next to being light and colourful in it’s design, it is made to be a ‘plug ’n play’ lamp that uses a simple 3D printed frame in which you can simply click the LED strip to make it work.
About Studio Dennis Parren
Studio Dennis Parren, known for it's CMYK Lamp, that projects coloured shadows, is a multidisciplinary design studio that focuses on using natural and artificial light as a design material. With a team of three designers and a network of experts, partners and freelancers we create our work.
We design from the idea that light = everything. Without light there is no colour, and no life. We use light as a material to progress and innovate the way in which we experience, think about, and look at light. We use the mystery of colour and light to create new concepts, and use cases for light to innovate, educate, inspire and amaze.
www.dennisparren.com
