The installation was part of Greenpeace's campaign to champion efficient lighting and encourage the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs. Greenpeace commissioned Jason Bruges to create an electronic, animated interactive garden of raised flowerbeds made up of hundreds of energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).
iLight worked closely with Jason Bruges in providing the lighting control system to show that the CFLs could be efficiently dimmed. The newly developed Varilight lamps used are the first 'dimmer dimmable' CFLs on the European market and, unlike earlier designs, can be used with standard household and commercial dimmers.
"iLight's controllers were the backbone of the installation," said Daniel Hirschmann, Jason Bruges' senior interaction designer for the project. "Considering our tight deadlines and the gleaming new quality of the technology involved in our installation, iLight was exceptionally responsive and supportive of our needs."
iLight provided eight of its iCAN transistor dimmer units. These 12-channel source controllers were fitted with DMX input cards to interface with the Jason Bruges control system. A custom electronic controller was used to detect touch. Once detected, animations were sent to the iLight dimmers using the DMX protocol. This caused the installation of up to 250 CFL bulbs to glow with gently undulating light that rippled across its surface and responded to people as they approached the flowerbed.
"iLight has always stressed the energy saving benefits of its intelligent lighting controls," said John Thorne, iLight's UK sales director. "We were therefore delighted to work closely with Jason Bruges in making Greenpeace's demonstration a success."
(Jim Evans)
