Arts / Limbic Cinema
Bristol’s Limbic Cinema light up Kew Gardens
Circa is a brand new installation created by Bristol’s Limbic Cinema for The Wonder Project at Wakehurst gardens, Kew Gardens’ botanic sibling in Sussex.
Curated by Shrinking Space and exhibited as part of an interactive art experience which explores the location through soundscape, sculptures and art installations, Circa is a twelve-part light sculpture made up of circles that presents circannual light levels in West Sussex.
“Light is the primary zeitgeber (time-giver) and is therefore the most responsible factor for setting endogenous clocks in plant and animal life,” explains Thomas Buttery at Limbic Cinema. “The arrangement of circles is also used to make the invisible oscillations and feedback loops that occur on a cellular level visible to the human eye. These mechanisms are the basis for the circadian clock that governs the behaviour of plants.
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“Each circle represents one month of the year. The total circumference of the circle represents an average of light levels across that month over the course of one day. So, for example, if the total circumference of the circle represents 24 hours and the average number of daylight hours in January is eight hours, a third of the circle will be lit up.
“One of the approaches we’ve taken with this project is to borrow patterns, rhythms and data from nature. Using the circadian cycle as a reference for setting our bpm in the music, our loop lengths for the movement of light and for the amount of light that is present on our circles. All of our loops have been timed to be a factor of 24 (the number of hours in the circadian cycle): and, coincidentally, there are 12 months on the year, which also fits nicely into this mathematical approach.
“The resulting installation resembles a three-dimensional clock, where time and light can be seen corkscrewing away into the distance.
“We hope that there is something innately natural and arresting about the installation and that, despite the fact that it is abstract, minimalist and digital, it still comes across as organic and alive.”
The experiences and installations that compose the Wonder Project are built from artist-scientist collaborations and ongoing conversations. Anne Visscher (Kew Gardens) has been in conversation with Limbic Cinema throughout its development. Limbic also collaborated with fellow Bristolians Shape Studio – as well as Joe Acheson from Hidden Orchestra, with whom they’ve collaborated on various other Bristol-based projects.
The Wonder Project can be seen at Wakehurst, West Sussex from Aug 2-5. For more info, visit www.kew.org/wakehurst/whats-on/the-wonder-project
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