The Luminale festival is the Biennale of Lighting Culture and will be held already for the seventh time concurrently with light+building, the international architecture show, from 30 March to 4 April 2014 in Frankfurt am Main. This year, even two projects will be presented that create lighting experiences supported by Zumtobel.

Cornea Ti – morphing light to space 

Cornea Ti, the lighting installation created by students of the bachelor degree programme in interior design at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz, will be located on a container boat near Untermainbrücke. In a world of data encryption and encoding, the installation visualises illusion and reality of a message, creating a bridge into our information age.

At twilight, 1600 video-compatible Capix LED façade luminaires by Zumtobel turn the installation to life, ensuring an interactive spatial experience for visitors. The secret of Cornea Ti is an anagram – a new word is produced by rearranging its letters. While visitors walk through the installation, the transformed letters will produce a word the real meaning of which has to be deciphered.

The installation comes to life using 1600 video-compatible Capix LED facade luminaires by Zumtobel, giving visitors an interactive spatial experience.  (photos courtesy of Zumtobel)

In the process, the LED pixels are individually controlled in real time via a PC and animated as a system responding to movement in the space. In this way, visitors are accompanied by interactive light on their way through a world of letters, creating a personal experience of space. The lighting installation is accompanied by music. Every night, live concerts will be held in collaboration with musicians from HfMDK Frankfurt and Ensemble Modern, indulging visitors in a unique light and sound installation.

Twinkle Twinkle 

A second installation sponsored by Zumtobel can be found on the square in front of the Deutsche Bank Towers. Consisting of 576 prism poles made of glass, the Twinkle Twinkle installation is a transparent and dynamic structure that reflects daylight and its surroundings, creating an enthralling experience for visitors. Daylight is refracted by the prism poles, which produce lighting-like reflections fanning out into a fascinating colour spectrum. 

Twinkle Twinkle installation by Zumtobel. (photo courtesy of Zumtobel)

In daylight, the sculpture appears scarcely palpable; at night, 18 Elevo RGB DMX façade luminaires set the four-metre concentric structure aglow. The special lighting presentation creates a dramatic effect, which is enhanced by background music.  Twinkle Twinkle is a project by Glasbau-Hahn GmbH, NE-AR Nixdorff Etchegorry – Architecture Research, lichtundsoehne – lighting & visual design, O-S-D – office for structural design and studioheyhey – visual communication.