Every year, design students from around the world come to the Microsoft Research Design Expo to show off their work and share ideas with others in their field. Roughly two years ago, Refik Anadol, a grad student from UCLA explained his use of architecture and light as a material to create a new art form, an idea that first took shape while he was a design student in Istanbul.
Anadol already had a well-earned a reputation for his work, but what he shared at the 2013 Design Expo promised to add another ingredient to his audio/visual art installations—the use of human movement to control the flow of light. Using a Kinect sensor and camera, Anadol would capture the movements of the conductor and with them would add another layer of expression to his work.
Anadol hoped to use the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall as the canvas for this next piece of work, though it was just an idea at the time. Fast forward to this fall, as concertgoers took in the visual masterpiece that was generated by Esa-Pekka Salonen’s movements and the music of the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing Edgard Varèse’s Amériques.
It’s a pretty amazing spectacle to take in, so enjoy and see you in 2015.
