London based design studio NEON has unveiled its latest collaboration with high-street retailer Topshop. The project, entitled “Crystal” marks the third year in succession that NEON have completed the flagship stores Christmas window. This year’s offering marks a particular innovation in the way it employs sound, light and sculpture to stop the passers-by on Oxford Street in their tracks.
The project is a large pulsating crystal-like form that is designed to appear like it is in constant motion, bursting from a shattered mirror floor on which the mannequins sit. This dramatic effect is achieved using 130 acrylic light filled spikes which have been mounted on a protruding base frame and fixed using brackets rotated to different angles to give the installation a naturalistic appearance. 4 types of cladding - iridescent, white, frosted and mirror are distributed in patches across the crystal form to further emphasise the natural appearance of the piece.
From a technical standpoint the project is particularly complex. As well as the utilisation of sound which is pumped onto the street using 8 window mounted speakers, the installation outputs over 400,000 lumens of light, equivalent to over 500x 60 watt incandescent bulbs. This was achieved by using an ultra-bright 1.3m LED strip which is mounted to the inside of each of the 130 crystals. These are controlled through a DMX control system originally developed for theatre productions.
The heart of the system is a MacBook Pro running Vezér, a timeline and control application that allowed control of the brightness of every light in synchronisation with a bespoke sound track which was created specifically for the window.
The project will be on display at Tophop’s Oxford Circus store until the 3rd of January 2016.
Technical Consultant: Tom Lynch Sound Consultant: Viliina Koivisto Fabrication: Caesarcraft Photography: Jamie Smithers
NEON is an emerging London based design practice directed by Mark Nixon that seeks to explore new territories between Architecture, Design and Art. Experienced at working at a wide range of scales, from small graphic pieces to large buildings, for NEON design is always a process of invention and discovery that grows from the client, the brief and the social, economic and technological environment. The result is a portfolio of work that is often surprising but always exiting, imaginative and original.
Web: www.seeNEON.com
Twitter: twitter.com/followNEON