Magazine Spotlight

In a State of Light: Exploring New Territory with Digital Media

New media artist Morgan Barnard takes a playful, experimental approach to digital technology. His experiential, immersive works have been featured in museums, galleries, festivals, and public spaces such as airports and bridges. With a background in fine art, video production, and interactive design, Barnard brings a unique, multidisciplinary sensibility to his work. Over the past decade or so, he has focused on creating collaborative, large-scale pieces that visualize real time data from nature through lighting and projection.

In his Santa Fe, New Mexico studio, Light State Design, Barnard experiments with projection mapping, LED lighting, and software design. These experiments often lead into his solo and collaborative projects. Barnard often works with artists who are looking to integrate technology into their practice and develop new solutions for experiential artworks. Recent collaborations include Sky Column, a permanent sculpture featuring a wind-driven light installation in Arlington, Virginia with sculptor Doug Hollis; ReVOlution, large scale projection-mapping with multimedia artist Virgil Ortiz at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center; and Biobridge, an interactive LED installation by Andrea Polli for Lights on Tampa.

Barnard’s most recent solo gallery show was at Pie Projects in Santa Fe. It featured his immersive projection installation Light State, an audio-reactive projection and LED sculpture entitled Cellular, and Barnard’s new explorations in plotter drawings, which combine watercolor painting and generative design. Other recent works are currently on display at Electric Playhouse in Albuquerque. In February of 2022, Barnard will be exhibiting a series of lumia-inspired light art boxes at Pie Projects.

My Projects

Aurora Clouds

Aurora Clouds is a lighting installation for the Penguin Chill exhibit designed by Ideum at the Albuquerque BioPark. Aurora Clouds uses live satellite data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create a dynamic light display that responds to fluctuations of solar winds interacting with the Earth’s upper atmosphere. As the intensity of the solar energy increases more vibrant colors are seen moving in the overhead display. Aurora Clouds is created with 8,208 individual RGB LEDs behind the fabric panels to create the dynamic simulation.

Biobridge

Biobridge is an interactive artwork inspired by the delicate microscopic ecosystem of Florida waterways and our human impact on it by evoking the effects of bioluminescent bacteria. LED light strips affixed to the underside of the bridge over the Riverwalk, are programmed to provide this experience as visitors move through the space. This artwork was commissioned by the City of Tampa for Lights on Tampa.

Garrison Canal

Garrison Canal turns the Pittsburgh alleyway Garrison Place into an imaginary underwater future world of big data. Visitor to the Canal can “swim” below waves of thousands of shimmering lights that transform color and animate in response to real-time changes in local weather conditions.

Light Between

Light Between is a temporary light art installation that creates a space to enter a meditative state and evokes a feeling of tranquility. The installation provides a moment of illumination between your normal movements through the urban environment. Using generative design and audio reactivity to create a dynamic display of color and light, this piece is an ongoing emergent performance. The slowly moving kinetic light patterns incorporate techniques pioneered by Thomas Wilfred’s Lumia works in the early twentieth century. Light Between expands on the Lumia medium by integrating a generative soundscape that controls the light patterns over the course of the exhibition. Light Between was on display in the windows of Pie Projects in Santa Fe, New Mexico from February 16th to March 5th 2022. A QR code allowed visitors to ‘tune in’ to the soundscape as they observed the site specific installation.

2022 CODAawards Entry

Light State

Light State is an interactive installation where visitors can explore the experience of being inside a world filled with light refractions. As users move through the space, ambient music reacts to their position and visual elements track their movements. It offers a meditative space for reflection and being surrounded by light.

Tilikum Light: An Illuminating Conversation Between a River and a Bridge

As part of TriMet’s Public Art Program, artists Anna Valentina Murch and Douglas Hollis collaborated with digital artist Morgan Barnard to create a dynamic lighting experience on the bridge that changes in relation to the natural conditions of the Willamette River in Portland Oregon. The water temperature determines the overall color scheme while the speed of the river controls the pace at which the colors and light move across the bridge. The lighting is also directed at the two landside abutments, where parabolic sound dishes, also designed by Murch and Hollis, offer surprising moments of amplification.