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Let There Be Light: Light Paintings and Sculptures

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Although light is considered to be rather a practical than an artistic tool, it has some properties which designers can effectively explore in their works. Indeed, light can also be considered as a medium for more powerful and more vivid artistic expression. In fact, many artists and crews make use of it creating quite impressive works of art.

In this episode of our Monday Inspiration series we present 50 beautiful examples of light art — paintings, sculptures, drawings and graffitts which were created using light. At the bottom of this post you will find references to related Flickr pools which contain thousands of further examples of what can be achieved out of creative experiments with light.

[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has one of the most influential and popular Twitter accounts? Join our discussions and get updates about useful tools and resources — follow us on Twitter.]

Light Paintings and Light Sculptures

Sitooterie II
The structure is a cube punctured by over 5000 long thin windows that project from all its surfaces and lift it off the ground. As the long thin windows all point at the exact centre of the cube, it only takes a single light source, located at this central point, to send light through every tube, causing the windows to glow orange. A small number of them also project into the cube to form seating. Designed by Heatherwick studio.

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I am on Fire
Light painting by Benegizer.

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sm_light paint
Created by Andrew Thomas.

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Finding Light

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feb light graffiti 011

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Light Circles

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Perfect Cicle

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Human Bulb

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Tunnel
Kevinhooa walks backwards while circling a road flare inside the Oxford tunnel.

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AntiVJ
AntiVJ is funky and creative. The team creates visual experiments, installations and live light visuals. Videos are included.

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So far away

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Lightmark
Light architecture by Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke from Hamburg, Germany.

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Eric Staller
Light drawings and light sculptures created by Eric Staller.

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Spirallight
By Robin Carpenter.

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Laser
Created by Fesan from Norway.

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Light in the Hall

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Fluorescent Tunnel

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Light Painting Humanoids
Light painting examples by Christopher Hibbert.

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Dean Chamberlain

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Abstract

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My New Camera!

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Toby Keller

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Olho – Light Paint com celular e sony!

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Fun with light and robots

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Feb light graffiti

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Lichtfaktor
A German design crew which specializes in light graffiti and light drawing.

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Light River
A light painting by Crystal Chroma.

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Michael Bosanko
“We Come In Peace”.

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Experiments with Light

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Santa’s Reindeer – Light Sculpture

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Abstract light painting

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Breakwater

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Neon Coriolis

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Bow

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Gyrating Quasar
Photos created by throwing an old camera around various light sources. A camera toss in front of some lovely blue lights.

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UVA and the Light Fantastic
Some excellent examples of light installations presented by the Creative Review blog.

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Working Late

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Fireworks
No light art without fireworks, of course… Sky painting at its best.

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Last Click

Sprint flashlight
Sprint commercial with flashlight animation.

Resources

Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com), an online magazine dedicated to designers and developers.

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  1. 1
    Komil
    July 14th, 2008 3:57 am

    just fantastic

  2. 2
    Komil
    July 14th, 2008 3:57 am

    just fantastic thanks

  3. 3
    Fabio Marchi
    July 14th, 2008 3:58 am

    Very, very nice !!!!!!!

  4. 4
    Shrey
    July 14th, 2008 4:31 am

    In my opinion, Santa’s reindeer is the best one among these!!

  5. 5
    Leigh Taylor
    July 14th, 2008 4:34 am

    Fantastic collections yet again – i will be coming back to this post for sure when i get some more free time!

    Leigh
    Portfolio

  6. 6
    Michiel
    July 14th, 2008 4:41 am

    Cool! There are some beautiful thing between them :P

  7. 7
    martin
    July 14th, 2008 4:59 am

    fantastic…

  8. 8
    Eivind Ingebrigtsen
    July 14th, 2008 5:05 am

    Somehow this site has lost its topic. And it doesn’t seem to be going back.
    I am sure I’m not the only one with this feeling.

    Come on Smashing – get back on topic and stay there.

  9. 9
    Marcos Vera
    July 14th, 2008 5:07 am

    amazing

  10. 10
    Sandie Sørensen
    July 14th, 2008 5:25 am

    Nice.

    I’ve been planning to make a such myself at some time. I was inspired by Pucasso… Tjek it out here:
    http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=picasso+painting+with+light&FORM=BIRE#focal=17ca4cb76e09fcbf234b5547f61a871a&furl=http%3A%2F%2Ftropist.files.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F06%2Fpicasso2.jpg

    It’s funny how soft the curves get in these “paintings”… It’s a must try! Soon!
    Thanks for reminding me, and inspiring me- again!

    I particulary liked the photo with the two persons standing on the bridge and looking down on their reflections. :)

  11. 11
    Niki Brown
    July 14th, 2008 5:59 am

    Always enjoyed doing this with slow shutter speeds on my camera.

    Niki Brown Niki Brown

  12. 12
    Cho. P
    July 14th, 2008 6:25 am

    Real nice, some great inspiration.

    Eivind Ingebrigtsen: I don’t see how this is off topic at all, sorry…

  13. 13
    Laurence
    July 14th, 2008 7:00 am

    I know its a little off topic – however it was great to see Architecture in Helsinki’s song Souvenirs used for the Sprint flashlight commercial. Such a great Australian band.

  14. 14
    Roger
    July 14th, 2008 7:02 am

    I love the exploration of the intersection of art and machines (which is what artbotica is all about)… all art involves the use of technique… this art uses the technology of light as one of its primary techniques. Inspiring indeed.

  15. 15
    kris m
    July 14th, 2008 7:07 am

    check this out also, made by a design firm in japan. they were the ones that inspired the sprint commercials, but this video is sick. a bit long, but wait till the end where it gets crazy:

    http://tochka.jp/pikapika/2007/03/pika_pika_2007_release_1.html

  16. 16
    chris
    July 14th, 2008 7:07 am

    Lightpainting is really fun!

    I wished my lightpaintings would look like the ones in this article.

  17. 17
    Barbara Gonzalez
    July 14th, 2008 7:16 am

    These are so unique, will be sending it on to all my friends.

  18. 18
    Mike Garrett
    July 14th, 2008 7:20 am

    I have one of those!

    In the form of Video:
    http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=527103942566

    -Mike

  19. 19
    Charles
    July 14th, 2008 7:22 am

    What? No references to light beer? ;)

  20. 20
    JeremieSpoken
    July 14th, 2008 8:09 am

    wooo flashy!

  21. 21
    flko
    July 14th, 2008 8:12 am

    muy bueno, yo tengo hecho algunas cosas con de este tipo
    QuintoH

  22. 22
    MiSc
    July 14th, 2008 8:44 am

    these are great. I used to send a mirrored light-written 2007 to my friends at dec 31st. 2006

  23. 23
    Santiago
    July 14th, 2008 9:53 am

    WOW!, amazing!

  24. 24
    Kristian
    July 14th, 2008 3:15 pm

    simply amazing :O

  25. 25
    Thang
    July 14th, 2008 6:25 pm

    Look great! Amazing

  26. 26
    gr8pixel
    July 14th, 2008 7:25 pm

    WOW!

  27. 27
    Asim Ahmed
    July 14th, 2008 7:40 pm

    Seems like Smashing magazine is becoming a Wallpaper site, No doubt its great stuff, but we expect some CSS/Javascript crunch along with these yummy wallpapers, Continous similar posts might get SM boring.

  28. 28
    omar0x
    July 14th, 2008 10:02 pm

    This is really wonderful, thank you, check this please:
    http://www.takuro-osaka.com/index.html
    also great work.

  29. 29
    Brian
    July 14th, 2008 10:23 pm

    The Christmas reindeer made me laugh but great inspiration!

  30. 30
    paskal
    July 14th, 2008 10:35 pm

    wow i really stunned with this collection… still wondering how they make these lighting..

  31. 31
    SonicHedgehog
    July 14th, 2008 10:55 pm

    I stunned through scrolling this collection. Great. Fantastic.

  32. 32
    Quakeulf
    July 15th, 2008 1:39 am

    This looks totally awesome but I agree with the general consensus that Smashing Magazine should stick to publishing moar articles about web development.

    But hey, this is INSPIRATIONAL MATERIAL am I rite? You can never have enough of that. =3

  33. 33
    Mehran
    July 15th, 2008 1:45 am

    Very(x10) nice ! ;)

  34. 34
    Squall
    July 15th, 2008 1:57 am

    Great.Fantastic!

  35. 35
    NeoSheet
    July 15th, 2008 2:12 am

    woooooooooooow… its AMAZING!! fantastic, im very love it.. thx smashing ;)

  36. 36
    max
    July 16th, 2008 11:19 pm

    GREAT !!!!

  37. 37
    Renata
    July 18th, 2008 10:19 am

    Oh! I loved these. In the studio that I work we did 2 light painting videos: midiaeffects.com.br

  38. 38
    Chris Clover
    July 22nd, 2008 3:48 am

    Wonderful images !!! and all my life I’ve just been using sunlight !

  39. 39
    Bernardo
    July 22nd, 2008 9:47 am

    Fantastic

  40. 40
    Evoria
    July 22nd, 2008 2:36 pm

    Wow! Stunning…and exceptionally inspirational.

  41. 41
    egbsystems123
    July 23rd, 2008 4:37 pm

    it’s amazing. Images are beautiful……… Thanks….

  42. 42
    Micah L
    July 23rd, 2008 11:07 pm

    God,so many paintings.
    If only there’s one from me ~~~~~

  43. 43
    Ness
    July 25th, 2008 7:29 am

    hahaha, Charles.

  44. 44
    Look E' Ti
    August 8th, 2008 4:07 pm

    SLLLLOOOOWWWW!!!
    Nice, very nice!!!
    una joyita totalmete aleatoria de la tecnologia.

  45. 45
    Artandsteel
    November 30th, 2008 9:30 pm

  46. 46
    Bobby
    December 3rd, 2008 8:26 pm

    WOW, so amazing!!!!

  47. 47
    Lauren
    July 15th, 2009 11:49 am

    Am I strange for seeing a squirrel in the picture above.

  48. 48
    red letter
    July 18th, 2009 6:59 pm

    me too, lauren

  1. 00

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