Lighting design and programming was by Seelite's Steen O. Larsen, who made extensive use of Martin's MAC 2000 Performance, MAC 600, MAC 500 and MAC 300 fixtures, as well as other lighting. All Martin equipment was supplied by Seelite through Martin Scandinavia.
The 10-storey museum is in the form of a 52m x 52m cube. Through the centre of the cube is a curved area called "museumsgade" out of which a distinctive spiral staircase emerges with adjacent balconies. It was in this space that the lighting atmosphere was created. "The idea was to emphasize the architecture and to recreate the colour of a traditional fireworks show inside the museum," said Larsen. "We also wanted to illuminate the room in a different way than the architecture was meant to be - to show another way of looking at the structure, showing the building in something other than daylight."
Larsen wanted the room to look as the architect intended in daylight as the guests arrived, and then reveal the dynamic lighting as darkness fell - first in a subtle white and eventually transitioning into an eight-minute lightshow using brilliant colour. After the show, Larsen then had eight cues programmed for slow, gentle colour-changing crossfades.
Larsen also used different hues to show the contrast between the outer and inner sides of the balconies. Also, MAC 300 washlights were placed on the spiral stairs to light the underside of the spiral, creating a contrast between the sides and underside of the structure, which is visible from below. MAC 500 profile spots were located on each side of the room and used to project gobos onto the balcony and ceiling. Additional colour wash fixtures were located on each end of the room to illuminate bridges.
Larsen used a Martin Wireless DMX 512 Pro Diversity and three Martin Wireless DMX 512 transmitters in the control solution. He explains: "We chose a wireless solution because it was difficult to get the control signal around to the various balconies without compromising safety in the building and polluting the room with cables running between the different levels."
(Lee Baldock)
