Amplifier for Art, Science and Society

'LightScale II' at the Mariendom Linz. Image courtesy and credit: Y. Li, © 2017-2023.

'LightScale II' at the Mariendom Linz. Image courtesy and credit: Y. Li, © 2017-2023.

LightScale II

arc/sec – Uwe Rieger & Yinan Liu

LightScale II is a kinetic installation designed to facilitate the exploration of spatial digital narratives. With its slow and gentle movements, it emulates the graceful motion of a giant whale traversing a virtual ocean. This colossal structure serves as a guide, allowing visitors to detect, capture, and materialise invisible sea creatures and nautical events. Through projections on its multiple layered gauze volume, LightScale II creates a tangible and immersive experience of holographic animations. The installation consists of a 20-metre-long carbon mast construction mounted asymmetrically on a single point support. A set of counterweights maintains a delicate balance and enables the structure to oscillate through space when touched by a visitor. LightScale II incorporates a position sensor that recognises its location and movement acceleration. This information is then combined with a live-render programme, which superimposes the physical construction with projected digital animations.

Developed with the intention of exploring user engagement with spatial digital data, LightScale II represents a novel approach to navigating and experiencing multi-dimensional narratives. Merging the physical and virtual realms, it opens up new possibilities for the interaction with digital information in architectural space.