Iben Brøndum & Helle Hove DEN BLÅ STI Glowing in the dark LYSLYD 2010, Herlev Iben Brøndum & Helle Hove We are Iben Brøndum and Helle Hove. We were commisioned to to do a light project, that would make people who live and work in Herlev aware of the path, that connects the town centre of Herlev with Herlev Hospital. We will show you a small video. There is some danish speech in it, but we will continue in english afterwards.

Our main idea was to ”recycle” the light of the city, using reflecting discs hanging on chosen spots along the path. So the circles you see glowing on this picture use no electricity. They are reflecting the street lamps. In addition to this people could borrow torches in the local cinema in the beginning of the path and at the hospital) The discs are made of reflective sheeting in many different colours – normally used for trafic security.

Using this material the discs also added a daylight dimension.

This is the back of the local community centre next to the path.

The discs were hanging everywhere along the path – in trees, on walls – high and low. People passing by where invited to a playful walk, looking for the discs – some of them hiding in the trees, some of them very visible, glowing from a long distance. Thus the project became interactive in a quite subtle way - You had to move around and be aware to see the reflections.

This is where you see the hospital for the first time on the walk from the town centre. The hospital area is dominated by cars, without a natural flow of pedestrians. So the hospital feels more remote from town centre than it actually is.

The smallest disc in the trees is one of three special discs, with a different motive. - Part of a little game, where you could win tickets for the cinema.

The particular shape of the lecture hall at the hospital invited us to accentuate it. The light is ”wall wash” LED-light, which drew a lot of attention, but actually used less energy than the exsisting light.

LED light brings out the best in the concrete building – it almost looked like linen. The whole project was carried out in collaboration with a small company making signs – and this was their first commission using LED light –

We contacted CreaSign (a small local company in Herlev) very early in the process, before we even knew what would be the leading idea of the project. Starting a dialog with the people in CreaSign, we had their materials and techniques in the back of our minds during the development of the idea. At the same time CreaSign had a wish to start working more with light and this project was an opportunity for them to work with new LED-lamps.

While setting up the project, people showed a lot of interest – not in itself surprising, but there is actually a dimension here which could be elaborated – it is a great opportunity to reach the citizens in an unformal dialogue. Opening new perspectives on user involvement.

The discs turned out to be very popular, and some of them were stolen during the first weeks. This made us suggest to hand out the discs afterwards - at the local library. People were standing in line to get one.

it is a nice thought, that our discs are now hanging in the homes of Herlev people. It has been an exciting project not least because of the collaboration with the many different partners.