Circumpolar Lantern, 2014 – Thilo Frank x Phillip C. Reiner

"Circumpolar Lantern" is a three-layered construction with nested 3D Voronoi bodies, each layer with subtly different form variations. At the center, a light bulb hangs on a steel cable and rotates freely, projecting dynamic shadows onto the surroundings. The black powder coating of the stainless steel sets a strong contrast between the physical structure and the light patterns it generates — solid geometry against ephemeral illumination. Developed for Bildmuseet Umeå, the installation uses the gallery architecture as a projection surface for the moving shadows cast by the rotating bulb and the Voronoi layers.

Research:
Three 3D Voronoi meshes were generated from different point sets so that the layers nest without touching. The central bulb hangs on a cable and can rotate; the Voronoi cells cast moving shadows that combine across layers. The research covered the choice of Voronoi sites (density, distribution) for each layer, mesh generation and cleanup, and the structural design for suspending the layers and the bulb in the gallery.