Congratulations to the Winners of the
2013 New York City Student Lighting Competition 

This year’s theme – ILLUMINOTES – encouraged entrants to respond to a completely non-visual form, manifesting in their track of choice from Craig Armstrong’s album Piano Works into a silent visual lighting piece.

Out of 125 submissions from New York City lighting design students “Atherisch,” designed by Peter Ossi, a BID industrial design major at Pratt Institute was awarded the grand prize at the IESNYC 13th annual student lighting design competition, held on March 19, 2013 in New York City. Ossi receives a $ 2,000 cash prize and an all-expense paid trip to Paris tovisit Debbas L’Atelier.

Grand Prize

“Atherisch” by Peter Ossi

Pratt Institute
BID Industrial Design

Ossi’s Atherisch, which is the German word for “ethereal,” was inspired by a piece in Piano Works called Fugue,a piece that according to Ossi,” is a dance of  two spirits that breathe a sanguinary yet ethereal feeling of playful reverie.” The concept for his design stemmed from the idea of refracting light through the action of breathing. His first model reflector was operated with his own lungs, breathing through a tube attached to an airtight drum with a diagram of reflective Mylaron one side. In the final model he replaced his lungs with a reciprocating piston driven by a 1 rpm motor and a positive return cam mechanism. The entire mechanical and lighting portion was then encased within a white amorphic, amoeba-like casing made of foam insulation coated with joint compound and painted.

Second Place

“Spectrum” by Eunyong Park

Pratt Institute
BID Industrial Design

Different heights of straws make a variety of rhythmical light movements like the notes played in Craig Armstong’s piece Delay. The viewer receives the light at different eye levels and angles that deliver high and low, fast and slow, and loud and quiet sounds of the piece.

Third Prize

"Model for a Suspended Storm" by Sophia Arrendondo

New York School of Interior Design

Inspired by Craig Armstrong’s “Weather Storm,” the idea of this installation was to create an image of a storm suspended in time. 

Honorable Mention

“Spin” by Jennifer Wei

Parsons The New School for Design
BFA Product Design

Honorable Mention

“Inspired by The Soft Rhythms of Gentle Piece” by Karina Oumov

Pratt Institute
BID Industrial Design

Honorable Mention

"Inspired by Gentle Piece" by Carla Ramírez  

Pratt Institute
BID Industrial Design

Honorable Mention

"Hidden" by Marland Backus  

Pratt Institute
BID Industrial Design

Keynote Speaker

Joseph Clarke is an architectural historian whose scholarship examines sound in the spatial environment. He co-convened the 2012 Yale University symposium The Sound of Architecture, which considered how culture and technology transform the ways we listen in built spaces, and is co-editing a special volume of Perspecta, the Yale Architectural Journal, on the theme of “Error.” Clarke’s writing has appeared in The Journal of Architecture, Log, Triple Canopy, and Frieze. He has worked at the design firms of Eisenman Architects and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and is now completing a Ph.D. at Yale on the history of architectural acoustics in Germany.