GRID

Pekka Korpi and Otto Suojanen light art & design (XYZ Dezigns)
Antti Nykyri composition and sound design

GRID was a piece for public space consisting of large scale laser mapping and sound compositions. It was presented as part of light festival Lux Helsinki in January 2019. The festival had more than half a million visits during the darkest wintertime in Finland.

The piece was based on geometric shapes and forms created by the lasers bringing a six-metre wooden frame to life. Music and sound design for the piece were composed early in the process and the technical implementation of sound system was handled by Lux Helsinki and Broadway Finland.

Composing for GRID

In Lux Helsinki masses of people wander through the city and visit several works of art, sometimes stopping for a longer while but often continuing their tour shortly. Because of this I seeked to compose something that would have a prominent, instantly graspable character. As the lighting design for the piece was based solely on using laser I wanted to have a little play with aesthetics. I applied a moviesque approach on mixing and used some synth sounds which could be associated with science fiction aesthetics. Maybe this would be noticed by some visitors and for some it would be unrecognized but still there.

As the composition was made before the lights were programmed, I constructed a strict structure with an intro followed by alternating of rhythmic and ambient sections. I wanted to provide the lighting designers some rhytmic structure to base their work on but also to give an articulate shape for the piece. The duration was agreed to be only two minutes and many of the visitors would only spend a short while on location so a clear and compact structure was needed.