Animated Lighting Sculpture to be Installed at Docklands

Docklands will soon have a new artwork at the Marina Tower, thanks to an innovative project headed by Laura Woodward with support from Tekt Industries.

Pedestrians walking through Docklands are in for a pleasant surprise, as a new public art project entitled “Murmur” by Melbourne artist Laura Woodward (in collaboration with Tekt Industries) will soon be lighting up their journeys.

Laura was chosen by DKO Architecture from a number of Australian artists who submitted proposals for the opportunity to install a permanent public artwork as part of the Marina Tower in Docklands, a new mixed-development completed in May 2017, comprising 461 apartments and a 273 room hotel. Installed in the main walkway that runs under the towers, the artwork comprises of a network of smart addressable LED controllers, custom LED modules, power systems, sensors, and master computer.

Motion sensors throughout the atrium allow the thousands of lights to respond to the wanderings of locals or visitors to the area, encouraging play, exploration and engagement with the space. There are also integrated ambient light sensors to adjust the brightness of the lights depending on the time of day.

Woodward, explaining her vision, said, “volumetric animations will flow through this cloud [of lights], inspired by naturally occurring patterns such as ocean currents, storm formations, wind movements, and flocking behaviour; those natural forces that are ever-present in our urban environments.” (source)

What is amazing about this installation is that there are 6 networked FPGA based LED controllers driving over 25,000 individual RGBW LEDs, connected to delicate fibre-optics lenses, all displaying distributed video content, with close to 10,000 Watts of maximum power delivery. On top of all of this, it was also designed and built to run for 25 years non-stop.

This is Tekt Industries’ second collaboration with Laura Woodward, following their earlier work together on “Voices”, a series of large tubular bells permanently installed in Craigieburn in 2014, which sound in response to the listeners’ movements. “Voices” was commissioned by Lend Lease for the Hume City Council.

Laura Woodward is an artist who has been creating and exhibiting sculptural kinetic installations for over 10 years. Her artworks have included several closed kinetic systems which create ever-changing movement or sounds of their own accord, as well as artworks that interact directly with the viewer/listener. When she is not creating and exhibiting her sculptural works, Laura Woodward is a lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts. She also co-owns the design and fabrication house Like Butter, and owns and manages Ironside Studios, an artist studio complex in Kensington.

We are very proud to help design, build, and program such an amazing installation and look forward to seeing more large-scale lighting installations of this type be implemented throughout Australia. Congratulations to Pro Build and Like Butter for taking on such an adventurous installation.

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Artwork: “Murmur” by Laura Woodward. Photographs: Jem Freeman, via laurawoodward.com.au. Reproduced with permission.