Out of 125 submissions from New York City lighting design students, “Atherisch,” designed by Peter Ossi, a BID industrial design major at Pratt Institute, was awarded the grand prize at the Illuminating Engineering Society New York City Section’s (IESNYC) 13th annual student lighting design competition. Ossi receives a $2,000 cash prize and an all-expense paid trip to Paris to visit Debbas L’Atelier.

“This was an especially challenging year for the students,” says Shaun Fillion, chair of the Student Lighting Competition Committee and lighting project design manager, Osram Sylvania. “Past themes have focused on visual lighting cues, such as shadows or the reflection of light. IllumiNotes encouraged entrants to respond to a completely non-visual form, manifesting in their track of choice from Craig Armstrong’s album Piano Works into a silent visual lighting piece. As a result there was more diversity among the projects, as the challenge was limited only by the imagination of the students.”

Atherisch

Ossi’s Atherisch, which is the German word for “ethereal,” was inspired by a piece in Piano Works called Fugue, a piece that according to Ossi,” is a dance of two spirits that breathe a sanguinary yet ethereal feeling of playful reverie.” The concept for his design stemmed from the idea of refracting light through the action of breathing. His first model reflector was operated with his own lungs, breathing through a tube attached to an airtight drum with a diagram of reflective Mylar on one side. In the final model he replaced his lungs with a reciprocating piston driven by a 1 rpm motor and a positive return cam mechanism. The entire mechanical and lighting portion was then encased within a white amorphic, amoeba-like casing made of foam insulation coated with joint compound and painted.

Spectrum

The second prize of $1,000 was awarded to Eunyong Park, a BID Student at Pratt Institute for her installation Spectrum. Different heights of straws make a variety of rhythmical light movements like the notes played in Craig Armstong’s piece Delay. The viewer receives the light at different eye levels and angles that deliver high and low, fast and slow, and loud and quiet sounds of the piece.

A Suspended Storm

Sophia Arrendondo, MP Lighting Design, NYSID was awarded a third prize of $500 for Model for A Suspended Storm. Inspired by Craig Armstrong’s “Weather Storm,” the idea of this installation was to create an image of a storm suspended in time.

“Light and sound are both totally immersive forms of experience, capable of instantly establishing a mood, and there’s a long history of designers and composers seeking inspiration in each other’s work,” says Joseph Clarke, an architectural historian, critic, and PhD candidate at Yale University (co-convener The Sound of Architecture symposium this past fall at Yale), who delivered the event’s keynote address and served on the competition jury. “This year’s theme was also a very open-ended problem, challenging students to stretch their creative boundaries and eliciting an amazing variety of submissions.”

Honorable Mentions includfed Jennifer Wei – BFA Product Design, Parsons The New School for Design; Karina Oumov – BID Industrial Design, Pratt Institute; Carla Ramírez – BID Industrial Design, Pratt Institute; and Marland Backus – BID Industrial Design, Pratt Institute.

The jury included Clarke; Mike Barr, senior account supervisor, Lutron; Juan Pablo Lira, senior designer, Focus Lighting; and Christopher Lubeck, NAFTA head and specification sales engineering and utility relations, Osram Sylvania.

Craig DiLouie

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