#pdxwlf

Gathering for the illuminated bike ride at Portland Winter Lights Festival

PWLF | 2023

KinetiColor

Interactive projection

Marcel Marias

Star Stuff, Unrealized

This GIF is a mockup of my submission to the 2017 Portland Winter Light Festival. The theme of this year’s festival is “between the river and the stars.” While I typically try to avoid lettered quotations (a bit cliché at this point, don’tcha think?), I love Carl Sagan (who doesn’t?) and the quote made sense for the festival, which is hosted by OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). The quote also fits in with my vision of the kind of large scale neon pieces I want to do – positive statements with multi-layered interpretations... it’s sciency (yet poetic) in an almost supernatural, spiritual way, which I love. (More about the science and context of Sagan’s statement here.)

This design was submitted to the festival committee in August, and while the project itself was accepted, the festival was not able to gather enough funding for the piece to be produced. I spec’d out the design at 7 feet high (that was the small version!), and so with all the stars included, it gets to be rather expensive with all the tubing length and skillful bending needed to complete the job.

So, my first real attempt at getting neon funding didn’t pan out – certainly I have lots to learn about neon production, designing large scale pieces, and light festivals. This is just the beginning. I want to neonize the world (mwah ha ha!) and I have lots of ideas brewing, so there is more to come!

I hadn’t animated the design until today. Blinking of the stars was not part of my spec sheet (although I wished it to be) because the technicality of having several transformers going with different timings is enormously expensive and near impossible (according to the shop I work with). The animation here is more of a fantasy, as the stars are fading in and out, all at different paces, which animated physical neon is incapable of doing.

Neon at the Portland Winter Lights Festival

Cuddlebug at Portland Winter Lights Festival