Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Light-space artist Jason Bruges began his career as an architect, studying at the University
London College Bartlett School of Architecture and subsequently working for Foster + Partners
for a few years in their London and Hong Kong offices. With an underlying fascination for
electronic media and digital technology, Bruges soon abandoned architectural practice and joined
Imagination as an interactive designer. After just one year, Bruges struck out on his own, starting
Jason Bruges Studio in 2001. Jason Bruges Studio tackles projects with a strong
multidisciplinary approach, where architecture, light, art, and interactive design work in tandem
to create a holistically spatial and responsive experience. Bruges doesn’t see himself as strictly
an architect, a lighting designer, an interactive designer, or an artist but rather a permutation of
multiple roles. His focus is in merging the experiences of art, technology, and space into one
moment and exploring interactive relationships between people, art, and environment. The
studio’s work consistently pushes the edge of what is possible—actively advancing new
developments in technology.
A recent panel discussion sponsored by the London Transport Museum and organization
Onedotzero posed the question, “How is technology being used to embroider, invade and subvert
urban surfaces?” As part of an exploration into the theme of “The City as a Canvas” and “Sense
and the City,” Jason Bruges Studio (JBS) studio manager Sam Hoey participated in the
discussion, referencing projects Platform 5 at Sunderland Station (2010) and North-South over
East-West at London Bridge (2008). Such projects look at re-humanizing the urban environment
with light. They physically involve the local community in producing public works of art. The
installations heighten one’s awareness of physical and emotional presence. The London Bridge
project in particular engages pedestrians on an interactive level. Both projects explore an
important theme prevalent in much of Jason Bruges Studio’s work—the notion of “digital
memories.” The pixilated moving images of Platform 5 resurrect the previous life of an
abandoned subway platform, creating a false yet historically based memory. North-South over
East-West records and projects pedestrian movement, creating colored light shadow-ghosts that
create visual remnants of physical conditions that existed just moments ago. Delving further into the idea of digital memory, Jason Bruges Studio has explored this theme
beyond the pedestrian scale to both interior and whole-building dimensions. Memory Wall in the
lobby of Hotel Puerta America in Madrid (2005) utilizes motion and color sensing technology to
“follow” people around the space, almost as if the wall were a mirror. Color changing LED’s
“reflect” the colors an individual is wearing. If someone wearing a red shirt walks by, a cloud of
red illuminated LED’s moves across the wall. Recall at Broadwick House in London (2007)
applies the theme of digital memory to the building façade. Throughout the day, the movement
of people up and down the elevator is recorded. At night, the data is played back in the form of
light. JBS uses the movement of people as a generator of time-based light art, creating fully
immersive spatial environments.
Whereas projects like Platform 5 and North-South over East-West rely heavily on the creation of
an otherworldly, illusory experience, where the methods and technology are hidden secrets from
the visitor; JBS constructs other installations that inversely highlight and make objects of the
actual light sources. Projects like Light Garden (2007) and Mimosa (2010) feature the product
itself (CFL’s and OLED’s respectively) in a more commercial attempt to familiarize the public
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
with new light technologies and their capabilities. The thread of creating personalized
experiences remains a constant in their work, through interactive environments where light
responds to motion.
Jason Bruges’ deep interest in light responding to motion and other external conditions arose
from influences such as Toyo Ito’s 1986 Tower of Winds in Yokohama, Japan. Ito’s tower
responds to wind speed and direction—an early exploration of “responsive architecture.” JBS
studies the notion of light responding to wind in several light-art installations. Their Anemograph
(2006) and Phosphor Field (2008) projects shift the response of light from the motion of people
to the motion of wind. Light serves the function of encouraging greater awareness of one’s
environmental surroundings. Pushing this idea of environmental stimuli further, Aeolian Tower
(2008) and Wind to Light (2007) harness the power of wind in generating light. Light becomes
not only a response to the wind but a creation of it. These light-wind art pieces provoke questions
of energy sources and uses. Whereas installations mentioned earlier engage people in a physical,
tactile way, projects like Wind to Light engage them intellectually. It forces one to consider the
“invisible” source of energy that surrounds us, making a visual argument for the use of
renewable energy through sustainable art.
JBS uses light as a visual indicator of environmental impact with projects like Power Up (2008),
where energy monitoring equipment relays energy use data to illuminated globes that then
communicate changes and fluctuations in local electricity demand. Bruges utilizes light as a
social tool, bringing awareness to urban energy use conditions. The studio’s light-art is never
light for the sake of light but always contains an ulterior role of dialogue with the consumer.
Their projects disseminate information, educate with new technologies, advance social
arguments, and engage people in physically immersive situations—all by means of light. In this
sense, their installations are indeed narrative based, as they tell the story of what moved here or
how fast the wind blew across the river. Their repeated explorations of “digital memory”
necessarily fall back on the idea of an underlying narrative. Storytelling often manifests as the
communication of collected memories.
The time-based, changing nature of their work seems to be best represented in film. The JBS
website documents many of their projects in video format, with still images serving as secondary
supporting evidence of the event. In making proposals for light-art installations, JBS uses very
conventional means of representation—light rendering software, digital models, sketches,
Photoshop, CAD drawings, and physical models and mock-ups. In an interview with Design
Week, JBS studio manager Sam Hoey emphasized the continued importance of developing
physical models alongside digital renderings in the design process. JBS project manager Miriam
Sleeman admits the challenge of translating something modeled in Rhino to the real world—a
challenge many of us struggle with almost daily in the academic studio setting.
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Bibliography
Jason Bruges Studio, www.jasonbruges.com.
“Sunderland Station Revamp Has Ghostly Feel,” Sunderland Echo, 25 May 2010,
http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/sunderland_station_revamp_has_ghostly_feel_1_11
12178
“Jason Bruges ‘Ghostly’ Wall Brings Light to #7m Station Refurb,” Design Week 24. 27 (Jul 9,
2009): 4.
“The City as a Canvas – Panel Discussion,” Onedotzero, http://www.onedotzero.com/the-city-asa-canvas-panel-discussion/education/
“Interactive Light Sculpture,” Design Week 20. 47 (Nov 24, 2005): 4.
“iLight Controls Energy Saving Showpiece for Greenpeace Display,” M2 Presswire [Coventry],
09 Jan 2008: 1.
“Bruges on the Pulse for Leicester,” Design Week 20. 10 (Mar 10, 2005): 6.
“Jason Bruges Studio Creates Installation,” Design Week 23. 46 (Nov 13, 2008): 3.
“Light Fantastic,” Building Design (Oct 25, 2002): 12.
“Model Making: New Model Army,” Design Week (Apr 14, 2011): 41.
“Profile: Jason Bruges,” Design Week 20. 25 (Jun 23, 2005): 15.
“Solutions: Lighting – Glowing Up and Down,” Building Design (Sep 26, 2008): 16.
Lisa Murphy, “Visual Echo a Go-Go,” Live Design 41 no2 (14 Feb 2007).
“Voxpop: What Iconic Building Would You Like to See in a Museum?” Design Week (Mar 31,
2011): 11.
“Wind Power Lights Up Southbank,” Evening Standard [London] (13 Jun 2007): 1.
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Jason Bruges with Light Garden, 100% Design, London, 2007
© Greenpeace/Cobbing, http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeaceuk/1411817281/
Platform 5, Sunderland Station, 2010 © James Medcraft
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
North-South over East-West, London Bridge, 2008 © Jason Bruges Studio
Memory Wall, Hotel Puerta America, Madrid, 2005 © Jason Bruges Studio
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Recall, Broadwick House, London, 2007 © Jason Bruges Studio
Light Garden, 100% Design, London, 2007 © Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Mimosa, Milan Furniture Fair, 2010 © Jason Bruges Studio
Tower of Winds, Toyo Ito, Yokohama, Japan, 1986
http://www.mediaruimte.be/digital_territories/projects/cybernetic/Tower-of-Winds_ToyoIto.html
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Anemograph, Sheffield Millennium Gallery, 2006 © Jason Bruges Studio
Phosphor Field, Poole, Dorset, 2008 © Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Aeolian Tower, Southbank, London, 2008 © Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Wind to Light, Southbank Centre, London, 2007, http://www.dexigner.com/news/11197
Wind to Light, Southbank Centre, London, 2007, http://www.dexigner.com/news/11197
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Power Up, Dagenham Substation, London, 2008 © Jason Bruges Studio
Power Up, Dagenham Substation, London, 2008 © Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Power Up, Dagenham Substation, London, 2008 © Jason Bruges Studio
Rendering: Rochester Bridge, River Medway, Kent, 2006 © Jason Bruges Studio
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Rendering: Rochester Bridge, River Medway, Kent, 2006 © Jason Bruges Studio
Renderings: Wind Flowers, Aberafan Beach, Port Talbot, 2005 © Jason Bruges Studio
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Model: Light Garden, 100% Design, London, 2007 http://www.dexigner.com/news/11968
Renderings: The Hospital London, Covent Garden, 2002 © Jason Bruges Studio
Rendering: Digital Turnstile, GT Turnstile, 2005 © Jason Bruges Studio
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Jason Bruges with Flatliner, London, 2009
Jason Bruges with Mimosa, 2010
http://www.dwell.com/articles/from-milan-q-a-with-jasonbruges.html
http://www.despoke.com/2011/02/17/the-brit-insurance-designsawards-16th-february-%E2%80%93-07-august/
Jason Bruges with Wind to Light, 2007, http://www.dexigner.com/news/11197
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Jason Bruges with
Panda Eyes, 2010
http://matandme.net/jasonbruges-currently-a-panda-fan/
Jason Bruges with The
Green Box Project,
2011
http://culture360.org/opportunit
y/the-green-box-project-globalfund-for-creative-talent/
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Jason Bruges with Normand Park, Fulham, 2008 © Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Rebecca Bost
Artist Research: Jason Bruges Studio
Light-Space Art
Fall 2011
Jason Bruges with Digital Fountain, Westfield Stratford City, London, 2011
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23994179-westfield-stratfords-magic-fountain.do
Jason Bruges with O2 Memory Project, 2008 © Jason Bruges Studio