Arts by the Sea Festival, Bournemouth, UK

Arts Bournemouth invited Michael Grubb Studio to develop a light-art concept for their annual Arts by the Sea festival.

We subsequently developed ‘Lost Light’ – this became an integral part of the town’s opening weekend of music, performance and art.

We merged architecture, materials, sound, video and light to create five interactive light experiences. Designs were based on traditional beach huts, fitted with an interior of diverse lighting concepts that explored the potential of light.

The five Light-Pods (as they became known) included the following installations:

The HipPODdrome: Covered entirely in chrome cladding and filled with forty rotating disco balls, strobes, colour-changing floodlights and even a DJ and amplifiers.

Colour Intensity: A good old-fashioned play with red/green/blue colour mixing – the fun begins when people enter a seemingly white hut and start making their own colourful shadow puppets.

The Lounge: Resembling a beach hut whose sides have collapsed. The frame appears to be constructed from light, with sequenced colour effects creating the setting for the perfect chill-out zone.

Tidal Waves: An installation using bit-mapped projections onto a specially designed three-dimensional surface, creating the illusion of sea waves.

Optical World: A three-dimensional curtain of hanging fibres inside a mirrored pod for an infinity effect. The fibres are sequenced show the light appearing to run in lines, backwards and forwards.

The project helped the festival recognised as the ‘Best Evening Experience Award’ at the Bournemouth Tourism Awards.

The Light-Pods were then refurbished and reused for the Gardens of Light Festival – also developed by Michael Grubb Studio.