The Milkyway project is a built, architectural and light-driven installation conceived of by a group of young, international architects. Exhibited at the 2013 Vivid Light Festival, in downtown Sydney, Australia, the installation consisted of more than 10,000 LED lights, and remained on display for two weeks.
CONCEPT
Milk crates are modern day items we tend to forget in our everyday lives, yet in the western world they have been servicing us for decades. They are a part of our culture as much as the auto mobile or the iPhone, but somehow they have become insignificant to our consciousness, consistent with most things humans lack interaction in.
An investigation into milk crates suggests that humans have a great ability to follow orders and instructions. We enjoy being told what to do; instructions are placed in every item we buy. An iPhone cover is meant for the iPhone. Any teenager will tell you that having a blackberry phone in an iPhone cover is “tech-blasphemy. So society tells us that milk crates are strictly for milk. But equally to our passion for order and mandate we have an undying ability to reject the nuances of society and an indistinguishable flame within us called curiosity.
DESIGN
Designing the final steps took on an algorithmic explosion. The light shelf extends infinitely into space, and floats above the atmosphere like a futuristic void to another galaxy.
Suspended in its parabolic form, the light shelf invokes a portal that encloses space, approaching design intimately. Linear in form, the installation channels the flow of people, funnelling and expanding perspectives, while interacting on the sensory level.
PROCESS
Designed and built over the course of two months, with an operating budget of $5,000, the Milkyway installation brought together a team of architects, lighting engineers, and commercial sponsors.
The 300 milkcrates had to be drilled and bound with both hanging and electrical cable. LED strips supplied by Opal Lighting were wired up and soldered to each crate, and each crate wired together to then be connected to a light controlling module, operated by LUTRON and supplied by Convergent Technologies.
