''Spectra'' is the name of a series of art installations by

Ryoji Ikeda Ryoji Ikeda (池田亮司 ''Ikeda Ryōji'', born 1966) is a Japanese visual and sound artist who currently lives and works in Paris, France. Ikeda's music is concerned primarily with sound in a variety of "raw" states, such as sine tones and noi ...

which use intense white light as a sculptural material. The most recent presentation of ''spectra'' was in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia for four days ending 24 June, 2018 to mark the winter solstice, and as an installation piece at the

Dark Mofo Dark Mofo is the winter version of the MONA FOMA festival, also held in Tasmania. With many of its events taking place at night, it celebrates the darkness of the southern winter solstice and features many musical acts, large scale light insta ...

festival held by MONA. ''spectra msterdam' was the first presentation of the work in 2008 its current form; an array of xenon lamps pointed skywards lit from dusk till dawn accompanied by a mathematically derived score audible from each of the lamp bases. The work was first commissioned and produced by Forma Arts.

History

Ryoji Ikeda has produced ''spectra'' installations in a number of locations, all in several different configurations. The first was a tunnel of light and sound at

JFK Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Avia ...

at Eero Saarinen's abandoned TWA Terminal in New York in 2004. Four site-specific light and sound installations were created across

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

in 2008 for the city's ''Dream Amsterdam'' event. A more concentrated 64-beam installation was then created in Paris that year for their annual ''

Nuit Blanche Nuit Blanche () (White Night) is an annual all-night or night-time arts festival of a city. A Nuit Blanche typically has museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the ...

'' festival. Other cities which have hosted the installation include

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

, and

Nagoya is the largest city in the Chūbu region, the fourth-most populous city and third most populous urban area in Japan, with a population of 2.3million in 2020. Located on the Pacific coast in central Honshu, it is the capital and the most pop ...

''spectra asmania', 2013 & 2018

Spectra & Full Moon from Mt Wellington (9111132653)

''spectra asmania' was an installation of 49 Xenon searchlights. It was placed in front of Hobart's Cenotaph on the western shore of that city's central business district. Installed and active from sunset to sunrise 14-23 June 2013 as part of Beam In Thine Own Eye, a group exhibition for the first Dark Mofo Festival. It was estimated to reach 5-15km into the sky, depending on the weather. In 2018 it was displayed from the grounds of MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) with the addition of Ikeda's accompanying soundscape, where it was confirmed that plans were in place to house ''spectra'' at the museum permanently. As of February 2022, ''spectra'' remains located at MONA.

''spectra ondon', 2014

The London installation consisted similarly of 49 Xenon searchlights shining together into the sky, accompanied by a

soundscape A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term was originally coined by Michael Southworth, and popularised by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, r ...

. This presentation of ''Spectra'' was produced and presented by

Artangel Artangel is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1985 by Roger Took. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, r ...

and co-commissioned by

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

and the

14-18 NOW ''14-18'' (also known as ''Over There, 1914-18'') is a 1963 French documentary film about World War I, directed by Jean Aurel. It was nominated for an Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic a ...

programme of the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

for the centenary of World War One. and funded by the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. It was switched on at the end of the Lights Out event on 4 August 2014, when the lights of many buildings in the UK were turned off in recollection of

Sir Edward Grey Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British Liberal statesman and the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the First World War. An adhe ...

's famous prophecy that, "

The lamps are going out all over Europe "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time", United Kingdom, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, Sir Edwar ...

; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime." The installation was turned off for good at dawn on 11 August 2014, as the presentation was only planned to last for one week. The spotlights used were

xenon arc lamp A xenon arc lamp is a highly specialized type of gas discharge lamp, an electric light that produces light by passing electricity through ionized xenon gas at high pressure. It produces a bright white light to simulate sunlight, with applications ...

s requiring 4 kilowatts of power each. The array and the sound system was powered by four

diesel generator A diesel generator (DG) (also known as a diesel Genset) is the combination of a diesel engine with an electric generator (often an alternator) to generate electrical energy. This is a specific case of engine generator. A diesel compression- ...

s fuelled by

vegetable oil Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are ''mixtures'' of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or fat ...

. A crew of thirty technicians assembled, tested and maintained the installation. The soundscape was inspired by mathematical concepts and consisted of pure

sine wave A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or just sinusoid is a curve, mathematical curve defined in terms of the ''sine'' trigonometric function, of which it is the graph of a function, graph. It is a type of continuous wave and also a Smoothness, smooth p ...

Gallery

Crowds come to Spectra.jpg , Crowds are drawn to the nightly spectacle in London Spectra by the Victoria Tower.jpg, The base of the London installation was in

Victoria Tower Gardens Victoria Tower Gardens is a public park along the north bank of the River Thames in London, adjacent to the Victoria Tower, at the south-western corner of the Palace of Westminster. The park, extends southwards from the Palace to Lambeth Bridge, ...

Spectra London 3.jpg, Looking up towards the sky while standing in the middle of Spectra London Spectra London 4.jpg, Spectra London Spectra London 5.jpg, Spectra London

References

External links