Header: Arash Abbaszadeh
In late November, Germany starts setting into its yearly transformation into a white and luminous country. Cold blue-ish light fills up the streets and the forests, transparent water drops shine in the morning sun. Such a whimsical country is bound to inspire those who live there, so it’s not surprising to have so many adored fantasy tales coming from this European country.
One of these stories talks precisely about morning dew on silver hair, which was the poetic inspiration behind “Moist Sparkle”, a lighting installation that resembles light passing through the water drops you see in a field’s vegetation on a cold winter morning. The LIT Lighting Design Awards, known for recognizing the best current lighting designs, even gave “Moist Sparkle” its seal of approval – of course.
A familiar sense of awe
“Moist Sparkle”, created by design student Arash Abbaszadeh from Hochschule Wismar University, is a light installation that candidly captures the essence of morning moisture and daylight. Designed for an art gallery, this lighting project is more than just glass light, it is an experience. Visitors can appreciate the ambience created by the fixture, slowly realizing they are getting filled with a familiar sense of awe: their subconscious is awakened by the twilight-like interference of light and dew, which they experience almost every day.
Light and dew
Light is half of the equation in this project, so getting it right was fundamental: Abbaszadeh decided he would play with winter sun rays and narrow beam-up lighting, carefully crafting the perfect candid experience. Picture this: frigid, blue natural light enters through the windows and is met by cold artificial light, both ending up reflecting upon multiple droplets and creating a limbo moment that lingers on.
The second must-have of this project is the droplets portraying the morning dew. An artisan glass-blown technique was chosen to create the droplets, which look like incomplete spheres in their final state and were scattered around in an inconsistent form – much like real dew. By varying the concentration of salt and water, the droplets were individually unique, each one with minuscule bubbles that looked like an extra layer of dew.
A magnifying glass
As the two come together, light and glass open up a new world. This project is innovative because it allows us to experience the lighting fixture on a macro and micro level. On one hand, we can take in the entire scene: how light and glass create the most dynamic shadows and reflections. On the other, we can individually admire how light interacts with the droplets, much like an insect interacts with the world. By breaking this seemly dogmatic barrier, Abbascadeh opens up a new world for anyone who glances at “Moist Sparkle”.
