I have been exploring laser technology since 1961. I opened a laboratory and studio in Malibu, California and began experimenting with laser beams, holographic materials, prisms, and light-splitting devices. Through my research, I discovered a combination of multiple reflections and light emitted from the sun-a combination which provided me with insights regarding our perception of solar system phenomena.
Human visual organs are limited: they do not divide light from the sun into distinct colors or levels of brightness. This installation, Photon 999, was created to make people aware that their visual perceptions are not completely accurate. This is not intended to surprise or shock one’s visual senses but to create a zone that is otherwise non-existent on Earth-a zone in which our naked eyes can view light as manifested by the sun.
The installation employs a specially created pathway which spans over the exterior reflecting pool of the museum. Fifteen laser systems, placed strategically around the outer edge of the pool, project beams of laser light in many different colors. The beams are projected toward a series of structures placed along the contour of the pool, at the edge of the building exterior. These beams of laser light transform the pathway into an unexpected, yet inviting, enclosed space. Guests of the museum are encouraged to walk along this laser path, and in doing so, will feel transported into another realm or dimension, as if carried away into a new kind of space - an environment created solely out of light.
The installation is intended to be equally engaged from outside the virtual space. The installation perfectly compliments both the materials and complexity of the museums’ exterior elevations. The laser beams play on and off of the glistening, intriguing surface of the museum, and thus provide an entirely new experience when viewing the museum.
I have named this new outdoor laser installation, “Photon 999”. Photon means “a quantum of radiant energy” and refers to the fastest phenomena known thus far in elemental physics.
Hiro Yamagata
|
|
|
