united visual artists :: light installation for Y-3 fashion show

Established in 2003, United Visual Artists are an art and design practice based in London, they produce works at the intersection of sculpture, architecture, live performance, moving image and digital installation. UVA’s team members come from many disciplines including fine art, architecture, communication design, moving image, computer science and engineering. The cross-pollination of diverse skills inspires new fields of exploration, which is core to their ethos.

As part of New York Fashion Week 2010, United Visual Artists created a light installation for the Y-3 fall 2010 fashion show. A clean, sharp performance was designed for Adidas and Yohji Yamamoto’s innovative Y-3 brand. Starting with a white monolith of light, a void was created out of which the models emerged. White lasers were then used to define the catwalk area, building an illusion of architectural forms that shifted in shape and composition over the course of the show.

More info: unitedvisualartists.co.uk

U.V.A. :: canopy + connection

Inspired by the experience of walking through the dappled light of a forest, Canopy is a 90m long light sculpture spanning the front façade of the building, using mass production and precise fabrication to evoke and reflect the nature. Thousands of identical modules, their form abstracted from the geometry of leaves, are organized in a non-repeating growth pattern.

During the day, apertures in the modules filter natural light to the street below. After dusk, particles of artificial light are born, navigate through the grid and die, their survival determined by regions of energy sweeping across the structure. The result simultaneously recalls the activity of cells within a leaf, leaves in a forest canopy, or a city seen from the air.

Materials: powder coated steel, anodised aluminium, injection moulded polycarbonate, LED, Code
Dimensions: 90 x 3m

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Connection is a responsive light installation. The work consists of an array of vertical luminaires integrated into a pedestrian bridge, used to create oscillations of colour and geometry based on human movement. This transforms the rigid structure of the bridge into a fluid entity that transmits the rhythm of the crowd to its surroundings.

Materials: Aluminium Extrusions, LED, Lensing, Custom Electronics, Code

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www.unitedvisualartists.co.uk

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