Interactive scape has produced and installed the electronic components in almost a dozen Theatre Marquees for artist Philippe Parreno. Most of the Marquees are meant to evoke a feeling of ghostliness, of times past, while another sparkles and radiates heat like a fire. They often accompany other sculptures, drawings, or films, but are also shown as artworks themselves, frequently over doorways, as if to create a portal from one time to another. The works combine lighting techniques that are almost a thing of the past (such as incandescent bulbs and neon tubes), with modern acrylics that are milled, shaped and formed with the latest plastic fabrication methods.
In the “Small Version of Guggenheim Marquee,” 2008, red incandescent bulbs sparkle in a random pattern under red neon tubes, generating so much heat that the visitor is warmed whist standing under the doorway. The red acrylic is internally lit by fluorescent tubes. Microcontroller and driver circuitry, designed and installed by interactive scape, generates the patterns for the 231 flashing bulbs. All of the lighting components are divided on two fuses, drawing almost 18 Amps of current. The Marquee has been shown at Petzel Gallery in New York, as well as at the Kunsthalle in Zurich.
The large white “Marquee,” 2009, hung above the entrance to Parreno's first major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. At 3m by 3m by 32cm, the glowing white acrylic frame is internally lit by 16 fluorescent tubes, and its external surfaces are adorned by 42 white neon tubes and 196 incandescent bulbs. The whole massive piece looks as if it hangs by two glowing chains which loop around a big blue air duct in the Pompidou's ceiling. The chains are comprised of milled semi-translucent acrylic segments, internally lit by 1,060 tiny white LEDs. All of these outputs are individually sequenced by a master controller via the DMX protocol. The bulbs, programmed in a chase pattern like a sunburst, dim down and turn off when the Pompidou gallery, now transformed into a movie house, goes dark. After Parenno's 70mm film is screened, the Marquee lights up again in sections, first internally, like a ghost, then externally, with all of it's glittering bulbs, neons and LEDs. Interactive scape is responsible for all of the electronics and lighting design, wiring, and installation of this major multi-media artwork.
interactive scape GmbH - 2011 - Impressum




