Fontys ICT students present at GLOW

GLOW Eindhoven
From 11 to 18 November 2017 Eindhoven is the stage for the light art festival GLOW for the 12th time. The festival will focus on various light art objects throughout the city: from complete buildings serving as light objects to unique special projects. It's no coincidence that GLOW Eindhoven is in the top 10 of best light festivals in the world, some 740,000 people visited the festival last year. But Eindhoven is also the place for talented people in the field of design and technology and the place where great pieces of light art arise. This is also true for Fontys School of ICT Eindhoven.

Trees & Bubbles
The projects Trees of Life and Bubble Story are (almost certainly) taking part in GLOW Eindhoven 2017! What kind of projects are these and where do students get their inspiration from? Trees of Life draws inspiration from the large variety of trees that Eindhoven is famous for. This became apparent immediately in the presentation: the room was filled by an impressive light installation in the form of branches and a trunk. With this concept students aim to create a link between humans and trees. They try to do so through various LED-strips that are connected to trees during the festival. By touching the tree, the heartbeat of the visitor will be visualised. There will also be the sound of a heartbeat. The idea is to give each tree its own identity through a unique colour. Bubble Story draws inspiration from the metaphor of life. The idea is to blow bubbles filled with smoke. The bubbles are filled with smoke using a smoke machine. Eventually the bubble filled with smoke will be illuminated with coloured light or an animation by a special beamer. In the various presentations students showed that they made a lot of progress in the execution of their plans. There actually was a smoke machine in the room that filled the bubbles with smoke. Very impressive. Currently they are still deciding whether the installation will be inside or outside during GLOW Eindhoven.

Qube and Little Big Bang
Qube and Little Big Bang also made a lasting impression with their presentations. At Little Big Bang visitors get an information-overload: they are showered with all kinds of sounds, GIFs, social media posts and videos. This is done by using intelligent light sources. These can be placed in the room at random, but together they still form a 'display' (because they know their individual locations). Qube allows visitors to interact with the installation within the theme Glow ('the Source') by putting 'energy' into the installation, for instance through sound or movement. This energy is converted into light that eventually causes an energy burst on a big screen through a LED-strip. The more energy is added, the more the Qube charges, up until the point that an explosion causes a discharge.

Extra opportunity
Both Qube and Little Big Bang didn't make it through the nominations for GLOW Eindhoven 2017. Qube however is still in the running. Although the project was turned down in the first phase, the group recovered itself at the presentation. They will get another chance to present themselves to various GLOW partners on 21 June, on "the longest day" of the year. Depending on the reaction of these partners this project may still get a spot at the festival!