Interactive LightShowers: art meets technology

LightShowers, a 16-ft.-by-9-ft. multimedia hybrid work, blends lighting effects and video that turns DuPont's Corian solid surface material into an art form. Described by its co-designer, Architect Michael Morris of Morris Sato, New York, LightShowers shows the versatility of a familiar basic product by incorporating it into a sculptural ambience into which the viewer can choose to participate. The art installation was featured at New York's Lucas Schoormans Gallery in February.

Initially installed at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, located in Wilmington, the 7 1/2-in.-high modular platform is covered with Corian that supports seven egg-shaped seating elements also fashioned from Corian.

An objective for DuPont, which underwrote the cost of the Corian and the fabrication of LightShowers, was to explore alternate uses for this staple product. Morris Sato's design required laser cutting of Glacier White Corian into veneers that were then bent into curves to seamlessly cover the seating form. "The installation demonstrates how Corian can be cut and fashioned into unique shapes and complex curves," says Alexa A. Dembek, a DuPont surfaces business manager.

Morris placed a T5 fluorescent lamp with a blue gel beneath the slightly raised oval seats. "They are surrounded by a halo of blue LEDs, programmed to pulse for a seven-second duration," Morris explains. Projected from above, images of water by Video Artist Paul Ryan play across the installation's surface.

LightShowers will be on view at DuPont's booth at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), to be held May 19-22 at New York's Jacob Javits Center.

—Vilma Barr, New York Editor