Nobel Week Lights 2024 - NAVET call for student projects for a sound and light installation
Read our article to know about how you can use your creativity and skills to develop a captivating installation with NAVET for Stockholm's iconic Nobel Week Lights 2024!
We welcome project proposals for the Nobel Week Lights installations executed through the Universities within the collaboration between NAVET and the Nobel Week Lights. Members of Navet are: KTH, SKH, KMH, Konstfack, KKH, Scenkonstmuseet, Tekniska Museet. Students from the mentioned institutions are welcome to apply.
We welcome ideas from undergraduate (bachelor) and postgraduate (master) students from KTH, SKH, KMH, Konstfack, and KKH to create multidisciplinary teams for submitting project ideas. Submissions from single participants are also welcome; NAVET will try to team you up with students with complementary skills from other partners (more information can be found at the submission link below).
Conditions
- The installation must be site specific for Vasabron in central Stockholm. Please consider; (1) the site and the context (e.g. historical, social, geographical) of the location; (2) the current lighting and sound conditions; (3) the festive and temporary nature of the installation, visited by hundred of thousands of people. Open here the PDF file with the site description and the conditions to be able to work (pdf 896 kB)
- The installation must combine light design with sound composition/design, with light projection on water
- The installation has to deal with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2008 that was awarded jointly to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Y. Tsien "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP". Therefore, the installation has to deal with bioluminescence.
- The installation can take inspiration from Costanza Julia Bani’s artistic research and multimedia project All what flickers and glows . Her project gave the idea for this call. See description below.
The necessary equipment will be provided by NAVET.
The deadline for submitting your ideas is July 31 2024.
Selected ideas will be communicated during week 35 (August 26-30, 2024).
Further timeline:
-
4 September - First meeting between NAVET + NWL + Student groups
- 16 September - NAVET presents concept to NWL
- 18 September - All comms material received including
- 2 October - Site visit together with NWL Team
- 15 October - Deadline tos end first production plan draft
- 30 October - NAVET + NWL Check-in Meeting
- 20 November - NAVET + NWL Check-in Meeting
- 3-4 Dec - Installation period begins
- 6 December - General Rehearsal
- 7 December - Festival Begins
- 16 December - De-install and dismantle
- January 2025 - Evaluation
At the end of this page, you will find the form for submitting your project proposal, but before doing that, we recommend you read the text below.
An introduction to the theme
From the All what flickers and glows project description: In the mysterious abyss of the ocean, bioluminescent creatures cast an enchanting glow, painting the depths with an otherworldly radiance. This aquatic light show finds its terrestrial counterpart in the gentle flicker of fireflies, whose ethereal dance mirrors the galactic choreography of the Milky Way. From the ocean's depths to the heavens above, a symphony of bioluminescence and celestial brilliance unfolds, connecting the microcosm of abyssal fishes, octopuses, jellyfishes and anemones to land-dwelling fireflies to the macrocosm of the galaxy in a harmonious display of natural wonders. All what flickers and Glows is a sensory and immersive multimedia installation and an artistic research project by Costanza Julia Bani (© Costanza Julia Bani, 2024).
(From https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2008/speedread/ ) “The discoveries awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry are a shining example of how fundamental research in one area of science can sometimes lead to highly beneficial applications in another. In this case, finding the key to how a marine organism produces light unexpectedly ended-up providing researchers with a powerful array of tools with which to visualize cell biology in action.
The story begins with Osamu Shimomura’s research into the phenomenon of bioluminescence, in which chemical reactions within living organisms give off light. While studying a glowing jellyfish in the early 1960s he isolated a bioluminescent protein that gave off blue light. But the jellyfish glowed green. Further studies revealed that the protein’s blue light was absorbed by a second jellyfish protein, later called green fluorescent protein (GFP), which in turn re-emitted green light. The ability of GFP to process blue light to green (its fluorescence) was found to be integral to its structure, occurring without the need for any accompanying factors.
In 1988, Martin Chalfie heard about GFP for the first time, and realized that its ability for independent fluorescence could perhaps make it an ideal cellular beacon for the model organisms he studied. Using molecular biological techniques, Chalfie succeeded in introducing the gene for GFP into the DNA of the small, almost transparent worm C. elegans. GFP was produced by the cells, giving off its green glow without the need for the addition of any extra components, and without any indication of causing damage to the worms. Subsequent work showed that it was possible to fuse the gene for GFP to genes for other proteins, opening-up a world of possibilities for tracking the localization of specific proteins in living organisms.
The opportunities offered by GFP were immediately obvious to many, as was the desirability of extending the range of available tags. Roger Tsien first studied precisely how GFP’s structure produces the observed green fluorescence, and then used this knowledge to tweak the structure to produce molecules that emit light at slightly different wavelengths, which gave tags of different colours. In time, his group added further fluorescent molecules from other natural sources to the tag collection, which continues to expand. Complex biological networks can now be labelled in an array of different colours, allowing visualization of a multitude of processes previously hidden from view.”
What is NAVET?
NAVET is a KTH centre with the overarching goal of becoming a meeting place for research and projects in the intersection of art, technology and design, with the purpose of facilitating and creating opportunities for exchange and research collaboration among artists, designers, engineers, humanists, natural and social scientists. NAVET is a collaboration between KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SKH Stockholm University of the Arts, KMH Royal College of Music, Konstfack, KKH Royal Institute of Art, Tekniska - The National Museum of Science and Technology and Scenkonstmuseet - The Swedish Museum of Performing Arts.
Contact persons
Roberto Bresin (KTH EECS)
Costanza Julia Bani (SKH Film and Media Department)
Federico Favero (KTH ABE)
Foteini Kyriakidou (KTH ABE)
Kim Hedås (KMH)
Location of the installation
Period of the installation
The installation will be open to the public in the period 7-15 December 2024, 16:00-22:00 every day.