Light Artists of Today: Luftwerk

Luftwerk is a group of two individuals, Petra Bachmaier and Sean Gallero. They are very well known by their light art’s use of dematerialization and materialization of the surroundings.

They also use many other techniques such as creating custom builds, utilizing famous/iconic structures in their works, and precise placements of shadows to create an image.

Luftwerk also commonly uses video projections in their works. In video below illustrates their piece that utilizes fiber optic cables to display a video projection on an interactive surface.

Convergence, Luftwerk

They are very interested in light, obviously. They believe that light plays an important role in our lives as it is critical to observing the world around us. The idea that light can be used to alter the world around you and create different perceptions and experiences is very important. This is very present in their art as there work is commonly simply light influencing the space around it in interesting and unique ways.

There work is all utilizing light and color to shift perceptions of an environment. These environments are typically famous, iconic, or historically relevant to the piece. A good example of this is the Farnsworth House in Boston, Massachusetts. They took this house and used lasers to completely change the environment.