Client Porcelanosa
Location London, UK
Status Built
Completion 2019
Jestico + Whiles and Porcelanosa Group have teamed up with Studio Fractal and Architainment Lighting to create an experimental immersive experience which opened at Clerkenwell Design Week 2019 — Pareidolia.
Pareidolia explores concepts of movement, memory and pattern with a digitally fabricated installation made of Krion™, a stone composite derived from natural minerals.
Pareidolia is constructed from a line of 45 freestanding Krion™ fins which are 2.3 metres high and set into a stone platform. Each stone fin is illuminated with three integrated lighting fittings which animate and bring the installation to life.
Pareidolia is a unique condition of the mind that craves to interpret and make sense of the patterns, images and colours that surround us, often tricking the mind into seeing familiar and nostalgic imagery in places where they shouldn't normally exist.
The light displays are designed to wash familiar movements, patterns and imagery across the fins to evoke a sense of Pareidolia. We witness the colours and movement of a sunrise, a summer grassland and a stormy day which are projected against the fragmented canvas created by the Krion™.
The shape of the Krion™ was designed in virtual reality and through physical models to create a dynamic canvas which would give a sense of movement to an otherwise static collection of objects.
A bespoke lighting detailed was developed for the sculpture through experimentation and proto-typing. The challenge was to conceal the lighting from the viewer. The 135 light fittings grouped in pairs of 3, act as a vertical screen that projects light away from the sculpture. It is reflected back off thin metal strips that are integrated into each fin. It creates a seamless gradient of light and colour that washes softly across the surface of the fins from a concealed point.
As well as a celebration of light, the installation has become an attraction as an impromptu catwalk and dynamic photographic backdrop, prompting genuine interaction, and delight, from those of all ages.
