Submergence: An Immersive LED Lighting Experience

Visitors to the Galleri ROM in Oslo, Norway were treated to an absolutely breathtaking lighting installation – transcending the physical and virtual worlds.

The experience, called ‘Submergence’, was created by Squidsoup – a multi-national group of artists, researchers and designers. They came together to create a “mixed reality experience that challenges perceptions of space and presence.”

The structure is simple – a total of 384 strings that each has 21 LED spheres attached to them are suspended from the ceiling. This creates a 16 x 24 x 21 grid – totalling 8,064 LED lights.

These are then connected to a set of DMX controllers that receive the signal from a single laptop.

A total of 3 Kinect sensors provide motion detection – ensuring that the lights respond to the movements of the people walking through, by lighting up and changing colour.

The entire thing is split up into 4 different sections – each lasting approximately 5 minute each, giving a 20 minute total time.

• Lanterns – with slow moving orbs, going near them causes them to move away and disappear.
• Divided Space – 2 volumes of negative space are created, divided by a moving plain. When entered, the 2 dimensions dissolve, leaving an illuminated trail of space wherever you are.
• Swarm – a multitude of lights surround the person walking through the installation, but the swarm gets confused when more than 1 person is there, going back and forth between them, undecided.
• Ecstatic – the light ends by intensifying and exploding into a sea of colour.

The idea is that the 4 sections in sequence play out an ‘abstract narrative’ that starts off quite calm before gradually building to a crescendo of colour and light.

We imagine the experience of being completely surrounded by light must be quite surreal, yet quite beautiful at the same time.

Check out the video below to learn more about this amazing light installation. Let us know what you think about it in the comments.