Light Boxes at Cobblestone Park
A joint Victoria University and Wellington City Council venture has seen the installation of three light boxes at Wellington’s Cobblestone Park, outside Victoria University’s Architecture and Design school.
The light boxes will be used for showcasing some of the brilliant artwork from staff and students at Victoria University.
The opening set of artworks is called FIRST LIGHT IN4MS, and has the overarching theme First Light, inspired by the success of Victoria’s First Light Team at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon last year.
Designed by Architecture Lecturer Tobias Danielmeier, the artwork explores what first light means in different disciplines including English, architecture and science.
“I wanted to showcase various approaches one can take when looking at a single term, in this case ‘first light’. Each poster is seen as appetiser for a researcher’s infinite thirst of knowledge. While the posters provide different clues, it is up to the individual to find out more,” he says.
Overview of FIRST LIGHT IN4MS artwork
Poster one is an excerpt from the poem Watchers of the Sky by the English poet Alfred Noyes which reads ‘Where was the gambler that would stake so much … on a single throw’. These words are a reminder that research requires investment of time, resources and the belief that the research will lead to new knowledge, and not only researchers but also our society invests into research in hope to benefit in multiple ways at some stage.
Poster two is a technical three line drawing from the First Light House solar array which is a not only a reminder of Victoria’s success at the Solar Decathlon but also plays on the notion that information and contents sometimes get modified and superficial when passed on to others.
Poster three displays the number 380 expressive that light becomes visible to the human eye at the wavelength of 380 Nanometres. The background appears to be black but has some saturation given that black is not a true colour, hence cannot be labelled first light.
Poster four called FIRST SECOND THIRD LIGHT is an examination of natural, artificial and reflected light and how different light sources can be experienced visually.