At the biannual celebration of light culture Luminale 2014, the installation ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ transformed the area in front of the Deutsche Bank towers into an arena for the interplay of glass and light.

‘Twinkle Twinkle’ is an installation that stands for transparency and communication. Glass and light -as traditional transmitter of information- are its core matters.

An interlocking system of 576 glass prism rods reached up to the sky to form a concentric sculpture that stands four meters high. The glass rods reflected their surroundings and broke the daylight to visualize the natural interplay of colors, creating light effects that refracted in all directions and resemble flashes of lightning. The aggregation of hundreds of single glass members creates an installation that shapes a totality in form. Singular glass elements, radially arranged on a dynamic spatial system, transporting and transforming light. Each element behaves both as structural and information mediums of communication. The resulting sensorial effects are materialized through the interaction of the glass bars, natural and artificial light sources and sound.

The hyperboloid form of Twinkle vertically divides into six sections. The load-bearing components of the triangulated structure are float laminated glass rods. The horizontally extending flat sheets of the vertical sections shortcut the ring forces and form the detail connection between the triangulated extending truss rods of glass. The connection between glass and steel members as the load-bearing detail ensures adhesive connection with a hinged mounting bolt.

‘Twinkle Twinkle’ is designed for day- and nighttime experiences. During daylight, it appears fragile, transparent, with decent colorful light effects from spectral light dispersion, the refraction and reflection of its surrounding. Due to its set-up, it plays with the notion of scale, thus creating a changing close-far experience to the observer, dissolving from a total shape to discrete elements while approaching the installation.
Depending on the visitor`s attentiveness, carefulness of observation and point of view, the installation and its effects appear in endless variations. At nighttime, the predefined, but random appearing light impulses achieve a changing, non-consistent image that does not have a clear narration. The randomized succession of short visible and audible sequences, appearing in varying intervals, creates an unexpected interaction experience to the observer, who falls into the dependence of waiting and expectancy.

The multimedia experience is underlined by sound that is synchronized to artificial light effect. It is the unexpected overlapping effect of aggregate members and layers of perception that create a unique and deep experience. At night, ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ is illuminated by powerful, ultra flat ELEVO LED luminaires by Zumtobel.

Five partners collaborated to create the architectural sculpture:

Glasbau Hahn GmbH (glass),
NE—AR (architects),
lichtundsoehne (lighting design),
o-s-d office for structural design (structural engineer),
studioheyhey (communication design).