Portable Light: Kennedy and Violich Architecture, Ltd.

March 10 - April 22, 2006

PortableLight was a collection of high concept lighting prototypes, created by KVA Kennedy & Violich Architecture, LTD. 

PortableLight is a multidiscipline project that aims to create and execute new models of providing power and light to the nearly 2 billion people of the world without access to energy grids. At the same time, they offer a cleaner and more flexible alternative for more developed nations. The prototypes use high brightness solid-state lighting (HBLEDs), which means a single diode powered by a small solar panel can provide light enough to read and work even as daylight fails. For the sake of practicality, the technology has been developed into a textile, creating a cost effective, completely portable, off-the-grid light engine that can be deployed at a global scale. 

Sheila Kennedy is a co-founder of Kennedy & Violich Architecture, Ltd. (KVA) which explores new relationships between architecture, digital technology and emerging public needs. In 2000, Sheila Kennedy established MATx, KVA’s pioneering materials research unit that engages teaching, writing, and applied creative production across the fields of electronics, architecture and material design. 

Accompanied by

brent goddard's signals

BRENT GODDARD IS AN OKLAHOMA ARTIST SPECIALIZING IN NEW MEDIA. HIS VIDEOS, ANIMATIONS, AND SCULPTURES USE TECHNOLOGY TO EXPLORE THE RELATION BETWEEN THE MIND AND BODY. SIGNALS IS AN INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION THAT COMBINES FIBER OPTICS AND CUSTOM LIGHTING WITH AUDIO EQUIPMENT TO REFERENCE ASPECTS OF NEURAL PHYSIOLOGY CREATING A METAPHOR FOR THE BIOLOGY AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF COMMUNICATION.

Translucent plastic bulbs on fiber optic cables created luminescent forms that lit up in reaction to looping audio that could be heard in the space.  As patterns of sound were translated and expressed as glowing and flashing pulses, this exchange metaphorically demonstrated the biological/physical basis of communication.