A whimsical, beautiful city of light

Light is an ephemeral but powerful artistic medium. This commercial for the Belgian energy company Electrabel captures the whimsical charm of fireflies on a warm summer night:

You can view a stunning higher-res version of this video here, with slightly different music. There is also a making-of video with scenes of the film shoot.

Thanks to Rhett for finding this one!

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It's a beautiful commercial like this that makes it so difficult to hate all advertising.

By Joe Leasure (not verified) on 20 Apr 2009 #permalink

yeah, I thought it was simply incredible. The director's other videos are also marvels of film in their own right. Glad you liked it!

Gorgeous...
What about combining light with sound or water for instance? I think you can get another dimention of art, as 'dancing fountines' or 'light and sound show'. I fancy it.

That's absolutely wonderful...

wyb -

I am quite certain it would be hard to find online, but I will see if I can find a hard copy to upload. A friend of mine made a video for one of his classes, that set several oil candles on sculpted forms, under a plexiglass "river." My rhythm player and I did the soundtrack.

Of course that was on VHS, took more than a month to film and most definitely doesn't have very good resolution/sound quality. But the music is actually quite similar and the light sculpture "evolves" through the course of the three minute film.

It was a really big hit at acid parties...

There isn't enough art like this in advertising. It's poetic. As an artist it must be quite fulfilling to actually get paid to create your vision for such a wide audience without compromising your concept ie. sell your soul!

That sounds really interesting - you should repeat it on a larger scale at Burning Man! I'm sure it would be a perfect fit for that venue. Definitely post a link if you get it uploaded, too.

Oi, the only reason it was possible then, was because my rhythm players wife works for Plas-Lab, where they make lab equipment - mostly isolation chambers. So he was able to borrow the "body" of flawed box, that had yet to be cut down as parts. We were sitting around one evening, drunk and stoned when Elaine brought up the major screw-up at work (not hers) and that's actually why Chris came up with the idea - figuring out what could be done with this massive plexiglass container.

Of course, I'm also taking twelve credits this summer (equ of 22 in a normal semester) and hoping to make the APA conference in Toronto - so Burning Man is kind of out...Besides, the last time I was at Burning Man, I ended up with an uncomfortable chafe rash, from sleeping on the bare ground (I was rather less than clothed).

I am having a bit of an urge to play with water though - just watched a documentary on Maya Lin (of Vietnam memorial fame) and her use of thin sheets of water is really attractive. Couple that with a fascination for Christo and Jeanne-Claude's temporary installations and you have me thinking rather hard...Damn I wish there were more time - so many ideas, so much fun to be had and not nearly enough time.

I have been emailing around to see if anyone I'm still in contact with still has a copy. I will definitely let you know if I can find it and get it uploaded.

Someone just told me yesterday there is a new Maya Lin show in DC I should go see. You are SO RIGHT about there being not enough time!!

I absolutely love the use of flowing water as a veneer and your comment about doing what my buddy Chris did on a larger scale really set me off on a brain tangent. Especially as another friend is getting set to build a greenhouse on his back forty.

That coupled with seeing Lin's Weber Residence, in Williamston MA, really got me rolling. I absolutely loved the roof of that house (sorry, couldn't find a picture) which is, in my mind, what Frank Lloyd Wright would have done, had he just a little more talent. The rolling hills of the roof, blended perfectly with the landscape around the house.

So I am now envisioning the greenhouse roof in hill shapes - which wouldn't be perfectly round because of material limitations, but could be close - with pipes running to the apex of each hill and sending a sheet of water over the surfaces. Point several canlights with colored gels up through it and adjust the colors....

It is very stressful to me. I have so many things that I want to work on - a pretty constant stream of ideas. The meds have helped slow things down a little and lower the stress of not being able to do everything that pops into my head - but it's really only a matter of degree. I still really want to do a whole hella lot of things. (such as putting some of the music in my head to staff - haven't done that in wayyy too long)

But for now, I'm mostly limited to going to school and trying to stay focused on getting conjunctive degrees in linguistics and neuropsychology - and I have a very long ways to go...