JORDLYS OG PINGPONG MED SOLEN

For almost three years Kollision worked together with Pipilotti Rist on developing and realising the ambitious artwork Jordlys og Pingpong med Solen (Earth Lights and Ping-Pong with the Sun) at the newly built Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX) in Aarhus.

At first glance there is nothing unusual to see, but in the darker hours the building transforms. A giant colorful curtain slowly pulls in front of a large window area. A large mirror ball begins to rotate and the lights start to dim. Next, DMJX is covered in Pipilotti Rist's fantastic world of visuals. Four large projection areas on floors, walls and ceilings slide in and out of each other, showing the visitor a new reality and view of the world. The projection in the canteen area is partly shattered into thousands of rotating light dots by the mirror ball that sets the entire room in a slow hypnotic motion. People, plants, furniture and the building are draped in colors and amorphous shapes showing fragments of nature and everyday objects creating a spectacular immersive experience. 

The artwork was curated by Creator Projects and developed in collaboration with Kollision who was the technical lead. Arkitema Architects designed the school and took part in the dialogue about spatial integration and Cipex handled the hardware installation. 

Atelier Rist carefully created all the video content in relation to the specific projection areas and fabricated the large curtain. In collaboration with Atelier Rist, Kollision designed the projection areas and was responsible for designing and developing the player software that runs the choreography of the artwork. The system decides at which times the installation should run and in which configuration, such as the intensity and geometric adjustment of the projector image. The system takes solar angles into account and receives data on cloud cover from a weather station. From this, the system makes sure that the artwork runs optimal in relation to sunrise, sunset and weather conditions. The software also starts and stops the mirror ball and activates the curtain. But not least, the software can take control of the functional lights in the building, by adjusting the intensity on the adjacent light sources to create a balance between the artwork and school activities. 

The artwork is funded by New Carlsberg Foundation, Obel Family Foundation, Salling Foundations, Spar Nord Foundation, Beckett-fonden, Danish Arts Foundation and Feas.