Paul Friedlander!

For Environmental Design we are beginning to work on our luminaries! We have to make these projects out of wood, but thought it would be helpful to research some relevant light artists.  I was assigned Paul Friedlander, who is a Kinetic light sculptor!

Paul Friedlander!

Paul Friedlander is an artist from Cambridge who was originally interested in Cosmology.  He then became a stage lighting designer, an artist who dealt with science, and finally a light sculptor. 

His stage lighting included electro acoustic music and he paired his light show with rock music.  It primarily focused on the energy of the music!

Friedlander- Stage Lighting

He later discovered Chromastrobic Light, which is light that moves extremely fast and gives the illusion that there is an object moving and constantly changing colors while moving.

Friedlander- Chromastrobic Light

In 1990 Mr. Friedlander attender MIT and pushed his work with chromastrobic light forward.  He discovered kinetic sculptures.  Kinetic sculptures are chromastrobic lights on spinning strands of stream.  This creates floating patterns of changing color.

Friedlander- Kinetic Sculptures

The most intriguing part of Mr. Friedlander's work is that he creates beautiful light out of nothing.  He creates color through science.  It takes more than an artistic person but also a person who knows physics.  I appreciate that some one has taken their scientific background and decided to create art with it, rather than the typical careers he could have chosen.

I also thought that Paul Friedlander was similar to an artist we previously met, Seth Riskin.  Both artists focus on light in a scientific way, and using technology as a medium.  They also use their previous backgrounds to create their artwork.  Seth Riskin used his gymnastics history in order to show light through his body, while Paul Friedlander uses physics to create his art.

Work of Seth Riskin

Paul Friedlander leaves me with the message that so much is possible with light.  His work is a great inspiration to me to create our next project; A lighting system!