Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Light-space artist Jason Bruges began his career as an architect, studying at the University London College Bartlett School of Architecture and subsequently working for Foster + Partners for a few years in their London and Hong Kong offices. With an underlying fascination for electronic media and digital technology, Bruges soon abandoned architectural practice and joined Imagination as an interactive designer. After just one year, Bruges struck out on his own, starting Jason Bruges Studio in 2001. Jason Bruges Studio tackles projects with a strong multidisciplinary approach, where architecture, light, art, and interactive design work in tandem to create a holistically spatial and responsive experience. Bruges doesnt see himself as strictly an architect, a lighting designer, an interactive designer, or an artist but rather a permutation of multiple roles. His focus is in merging the experiences of art, technology, and space into one moment and exploring interactive relationships between people, art, and environment. The studios work consistently pushes the edge of what is possibleactively advancing new developments in technology. A recent panel discussion sponsored by the London Transport Museum and organization Onedotzero posed the question, How is technology being used to embroider, invade and subvert urban surfaces? As part of an exploration into the theme of The City as a Canvas and Sense and the City, Jason Bruges Studio (JBS) studio manager Sam Hoey participated in the discussion, referencing projects Platform 5 at Sunderland Station (2010) and North-South over East-West at London Bridge (2008). Such projects look at re-humanizing the urban environment with light. They physically involve the local community in producing public works of art. The installations heighten ones awareness of physical and emotional presence. The London Bridge project in particular engages pedestrians on an interactive level. Both projects explore an important theme prevalent in much of Jason Bruges Studios workthe notion of digital memories. The pixilated moving images of Platform 5 resurrect the previous life of an abandoned subway platform, creating a false yet historically based memory. North-South over East-West records and projects pedestrian movement, creating colored light shadow-ghosts that create visual remnants of physical conditions that existed just moments ago. Delving further into the idea of digital memory, Jason Bruges Studio has explored this theme beyond the pedestrian scale to both interior and whole-building dimensions. Memory Wall in the lobby of Hotel Puerta America in Madrid (2005) utilizes motion and color sensing technology to follow people around the space, almost as if the wall were a mirror. Color changing LEDs reflect the colors an individual is wearing. If someone wearing a red shirt walks by, a cloud of red illuminated LEDs moves across the wall. Recall at Broadwick House in London (2007) applies the theme of digital memory to the building faade. Throughout the day, the movement of people up and down the elevator is recorded. At night, the data is played back in the form of light. JBS uses the movement of people as a generator of time-based light art, creating fully immersive spatial environments. Whereas projects like Platform 5 and North-South over East-West rely heavily on the creation of an otherworldly, illusory experience, where the methods and technology are hidden secrets from the visitor; JBS constructs other installations that inversely highlight and make objects of the actual light sources. Projects like Light Garden (2007) and Mimosa (2010) feature the product itself (CFLs and OLEDs respectively) in a more commercial attempt to familiarize the public

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

with new light technologies and their capabilities. The thread of creating personalized experiences remains a constant in their work, through interactive environments where light responds to motion. Jason Bruges deep interest in light responding to motion and other external conditions arose from influences such as Toyo Itos 1986 Tower of Winds in Yokohama, Japan. Itos tower responds to wind speed and directionan early exploration of responsive architecture. JBS studies the notion of light responding to wind in several light-art installations. Their Anemograph (2006) and Phosphor Field (2008) projects shift the response of light from the motion of people to the motion of wind. Light serves the function of encouraging greater awareness of ones environmental surroundings. Pushing this idea of environmental stimuli further, Aeolian Tower (2008) and Wind to Light (2007) harness the power of wind in generating light. Light becomes not only a response to the wind but a creation of it. These light-wind art pieces provoke questions of energy sources and uses. Whereas installations mentioned earlier engage people in a physical, tactile way, projects like Wind to Light engage them intellectually. It forces one to consider the invisible source of energy that surrounds us, making a visual argument for the use of renewable energy through sustainable art. JBS uses light as a visual indicator of environmental impact with projects like Power Up (2008), where energy monitoring equipment relays energy use data to illuminated globes that then communicate changes and fluctuations in local electricity demand. Bruges utilizes light as a social tool, bringing awareness to urban energy use conditions. The studios light-art is never light for the sake of light but always contains an ulterior role of dialogue with the consumer. Their projects disseminate information, educate with new technologies, advance social arguments, and engage people in physically immersive situationsall by means of light. In this sense, their installations are indeed narrative based, as they tell the story of what moved here or how fast the wind blew across the river. Their repeated explorations of digital memory necessarily fall back on the idea of an underlying narrative. Storytelling often manifests as the communication of collected memories. The time-based, changing nature of their work seems to be best represented in film. The JBS website documents many of their projects in video format, with still images serving as secondary supporting evidence of the event. In making proposals for light-art installations, JBS uses very conventional means of representationlight rendering software, digital models, sketches, Photoshop, CAD drawings, and physical models and mock-ups. In an interview with Design Week, JBS studio manager Sam Hoey emphasized the continued importance of developing physical models alongside digital renderings in the design process. JBS project manager Miriam Sleeman admits the challenge of translating something modeled in Rhino to the real worlda challenge many of us struggle with almost daily in the academic studio setting.

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio Bibliography

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Jason Bruges Studio, www.jasonbruges.com. Sunderland Station Revamp Has Ghostly Feel, Sunderland Echo, 25 May 2010, http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/sunderland_station_revamp_has_ghostly_feel_1_11 12178 Jason Bruges Ghostly Wall Brings Light to #7m Station Refurb, Design Week 24. 27 (Jul 9, 2009): 4. The City as a Canvas Panel Discussion, Onedotzero, http://www.onedotzero.com/the-city-asa-canvas-panel-discussion/education/ Interactive Light Sculpture, Design Week 20. 47 (Nov 24, 2005): 4. iLight Controls Energy Saving Showpiece for Greenpeace Display, M2 Presswire [Coventry], 09 Jan 2008: 1. Bruges on the Pulse for Leicester, Design Week 20. 10 (Mar 10, 2005): 6. Jason Bruges Studio Creates Installation, Design Week 23. 46 (Nov 13, 2008): 3. Light Fantastic, Building Design (Oct 25, 2002): 12. Model Making: New Model Army, Design Week (Apr 14, 2011): 41. Profile: Jason Bruges, Design Week 20. 25 (Jun 23, 2005): 15. Solutions: Lighting Glowing Up and Down, Building Design (Sep 26, 2008): 16. Lisa Murphy, Visual Echo a Go-Go, Live Design 41 no2 (14 Feb 2007). Voxpop: What Iconic Building Would You Like to See in a Museum? Design Week (Mar 31, 2011): 11. Wind Power Lights Up Southbank, Evening Standard [London] (13 Jun 2007): 1.

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Jason Bruges with Light Garden, 100% Design, London, 2007 Greenpeace/Cobbing, http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeaceuk/1411817281/

Platform 5, Sunderland Station, 2010 James Medcraft

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

North-South over East-West, London Bridge, 2008 Jason Bruges Studio

Memory Wall, Hotel Puerta America, Madrid, 2005 Jason Bruges Studio

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Recall, Broadwick House, London, 2007 Jason Bruges Studio

Light Garden, 100% Design, London, 2007 Jason Bruges Studio

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Mimosa, Milan Furniture Fair, 2010 Jason Bruges Studio

Tower of Winds, Toyo Ito, Yokohama, Japan, 1986 http://www.mediaruimte.be/digital_territories/projects/cybernetic/Tower-of-Winds_ToyoIto.html

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Anemograph, Sheffield Millennium Gallery, 2006 Jason Bruges Studio

Phosphor Field, Poole, Dorset, 2008 Jason Bruges Studio

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Aeolian Tower, Southbank, London, 2008 Jason Bruges Studio

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Wind to Light, Southbank Centre, London, 2007, http://www.dexigner.com/news/11197

Wind to Light, Southbank Centre, London, 2007, http://www.dexigner.com/news/11197

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Power Up, Dagenham Substation, London, 2008 Jason Bruges Studio

Power Up, Dagenham Substation, London, 2008 Jason Bruges Studio

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Power Up, Dagenham Substation, London, 2008 Jason Bruges Studio

Rendering: Rochester Bridge, River Medway, Kent, 2006 Jason Bruges Studio

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Rendering: Rochester Bridge, River Medway, Kent, 2006 Jason Bruges Studio

Renderings: Wind Flowers, Aberafan Beach, Port Talbot, 2005 Jason Bruges Studio

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Model: Light Garden, 100% Design, London, 2007 http://www.dexigner.com/news/11968

Renderings: The Hospital London, Covent Garden, 2002 Jason Bruges Studio

Rendering: Digital Turnstile, GT Turnstile, 2005 Jason Bruges Studio

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Jason Bruges with Flatliner, London, 2009

http://www.dwell.com/articles/from-milan-q-a-with-jasonbruges.html

Jason Bruges with Mimosa, 2010

http://www.despoke.com/2011/02/17/the-brit-insurance-designsawards-16th-february-%E2%80%93-07-august/

Jason Bruges with Wind to Light, 2007, http://www.dexigner.com/news/11197

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011 Jason Bruges with Panda Eyes, 2010
http://matandme.net/jasonbruges-currently-a-panda-fan/

Jason Bruges with The Green Box Project, 2011

http://culture360.org/opportunit y/the-green-box-project-globalfund-for-creative-talent/

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Jason Bruges with Normand Park, Fulham, 2008 Jason Bruges Studio

Rebecca Bost Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio

Light-Space Art Fall 2011

Jason Bruges with Digital Fountain, Westfield Stratford City, London, 2011 http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23994179-westfield-stratfords-magic-fountain.do

Jason Bruges with O2 Memory Project, 2008 Jason Bruges Studio