ÁNIMA, 2020

Llum BCN Festival, Barcelona, Spain
ELISAVA School of Design & Engineering

When we were presented with the opportunity to create an immersive lighting experience for one of the biggest light festivals in Barcelona, our level of excitement was equally met with a few challenges--from our restrictive site location to the newly enforced regulations on participating (and future) projects--thus, we began to adopt a strategy that focused on methods of low-tech yet high impact.

Equal in challenge to the conceptual solution was the production aspect. With a strategy in place, we focused on using minimal materials in the installation to highlight the importance of light as a primary material and to avoid having large amounts of unresolved materials once the festival was over.

Fiber optics were chosen as the lighting component, in part due to its versatile nature, flexible application, and low impact on the environment--low energy consumption, heat-free illumination, and its ability to be recycled or upcycled.

With Anima set to be a long tunnel of fiber optic lights suspended from the ceiling of the structure, the construction process needed to ensure that the final iteration used the least amount of materials, while meeting the expectations of a fully immersive experience.

“In a world of constant competition, the more information you gather about people, the more power you gain over them them. As fast as light, our data travels around the world. They become part of your property, but apart from an archived data system. The lights that interact with the SOUL act as symbols of collective information is a reminder that there is a system where we are all equal, like each of the lights you see, tied to a digital soul.”

Project Team: Alexa Nader, Assil Naji, Berta Abad, Beth Pujol, Brentsen Solomon, Cristina Martí, Dalia Al-Akki, Eirini Sampani, Elena Caubet, Jad Karam, Jana Antoun, Joelle Nader, Juan Arizti, Judith Solé, Kuan Yi Wu,Liam Kelly,Ines Fernandez, Marta Borreguero, Miquel Perez, Mokshuda Narula, Montserrat Sevilla, Rubén García, Rubén Montero, Selen Kurt, Stephanie Ibrahim, Tanvi Gupta, Tiago Rosado, Tracy Jabbour, Yunling Jin

Directors: Toni Montes, Roger Paez,Maria de la Cámara (Cube.bz), Gabriel Paré (Cube.bz)

Presented by the Elisava School of Design & Engineering