Nulty wins Philips Strand Lighting competition with "Anamorphosis"
Nulty is the proud winner of the Philips Strand Lighting upcycling competition. Our team of architectural lighting designers scooped the prize for “Anamorphosis”, which saw them turn a vintage PATT 23 theatre spotlight into a deconstructed light art installation piece.
We were revealed as the winner at The Society of Light and Lighting Fresnel Lecture, which recently took place at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, London. Philips was chief sponsor of the event, alongside support from the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD). Following the talk, Philips Lighting Application Design Lead and competition judge Mike Simpson announced that our design had come out on top!
Nick Read, Project Manager at Howard Easton Lighting built the prototypes of the winning design and two finalists, all of which were displayed at the Royal Institution for attendees of The Fresnel Lecture to view.
The brief by Philips was to upcycle a vintage Strand fitting and give the classic piece of equipment a new lease of life. The submission had to represent the three main themes of the competition which were: upcycling, brand heritage and innovation. There were two Strand fittings to choose from: the PATT 123 or the PATT 23 – we chose the PATT 23 for its iconic form. The final piece also needed to function as a light source and could incorporate any lamps from the Philips Lighting range.
The idea behind Anamorphosis was to communicate the technological advancements in the lighting industry by taking the good of the old and combining it with the ingenuity of the new. Our team decided to reflect this by exploding the PATT 23 exposing the inner workings and technology which make the fitting so great. The LED lamps by Philips were arranged in a circular 12-point clock pattern and pulsate on and off clockwise around the PATT 23 when viewed from the front. This reinforces the anamorphic nature of what the viewer sees and further cements how the companies have united over time to form the future.
The final result was a dynamic light art showpiece that reflects Strand’s brand heritage and celebrates light itself. Anamorphosis is not just a history lesson or something beautiful to look at, it is a thought, an idea and a message that should make us all think carefully about the past, present and future of our industry and the tools we choose to light it with.
Everybody got behind the project as it was an opportunity to create something really abstract and innovative by upcycling a classic piece of theatrical lighting technology. Matthew Wright, lighting designer and project contributor, said: “I was particularly excited by this because of its theatrical nature. I got interested in lighting through doing plays and performances at school and trained as a Theatrical Lighting Designer at University. The Strand PATT 23 and PATT 123 were amongst some of the first professional luminaires I ever used.”
Anamorphosis will be touring with Philips Entertainment Lighting and will be on display at this year’s Prolight + Sound in Frankfurt from 15-18th of April. A short video has been made about the competition and our award winning entry – see it here.
Image: Claire Hamill (Nulty)
