Page 70 - enLIGHTenment Magazine - February 2017

the highs of lo

W

ith an early appreciation for He works on projects all over the world. From
the work of French Impression- Burning Man events in the Nevada desert to proj-

ist Claude Monet, Hong Kong ects spanning 50 interconnected buildings in Hong
artist Teddy Lo traveled to the Kong’s Victoria Harbor, no exploration of light in-

U.S. to a end the renowned
stallation seems to be too challenging for Lo.
art school ACCD in California, earning a degree in

advertising and ne art.
Mike Brannon: Do you create with a green design/

While a visit to a lighting factory sparked a curios- sustainable aesthetic in mind regarding tech-
ity about LED as a medium before he graduated, niques and materials?

Lo’s rst job was in advertising in New York City. Teddy Lo: My process and production are still quite
While there, he continued his interest in ne art and heavily based on computer so ware and machin-

held his rst art exhibition at the Arturo Di Modica ery, but I have been improving on engineering and

Gallery and began working on commercial lighting electronic techniques that would make our lighting
projects. Eventually he le the advertising world works most energy-e cient in design.

and concentrated on lighting, achieving a master’s Materials-wise, I have been interested in more
degree in lighting design from Queensland Univer- permanent materials like rock and metal; however,

sity of Technology and founding his own light art I have been researching and testing environmental

design company LED ARTIST and Teddy Lo Stu- and sustainable materials such as recycled glass,
dio with o ces in New York City, Hong Kong, and plastic bo les, and various paper stocks with my

Shanghai.
brothers’ environmental lifestyle company Ecols to
An interactive experience artist, Lo integrates expand the green revolution and consciousness to

selective elements of chroma-therapy (healing via my audiences.

color and light therapy, aligning circadian rhythms,
and environmental enhancement) into his illumi- MB: Regarding large-scale works, such as the Drag-

nated art.
on built for Burning Man, how do you go about
designing and building these types of projects?

TL: For the light dragon – Gon Kirin – I had this

vision to bring an electronic beast to the playa
grounds of Burning Man, so I researched and had Shanghai Tower

some veteran burners introduce me to a Detroit
metal art artist named Ryan Doyle. We collaborated

and brainstormed taking a 20-foot, airport-style

transport vehicle to a 60'-long x 12' wide x 22' high
hydraulic and re-breathing beast.

For me, the aesthetics and art direction is u erly
important for the authenticity of experience for a

Mad Max high-tech beast from another world. I had

to keep the original intent of my lighting concept for
the dragon while Ryan had the freedom to aunt his

skills and helped build the mechanical parts.
The dragon is still continuously evolving and now

I’m working with another talented metal and me-

chanical artist, Henry Chang, and Playaworks in Las
Vegas for the latest version of the dragon.

For other bigger projects, I tend to create the
concept and designs rst and then search for the

best fabricator – based on the budget and criteria

– to assist in large-scale manufacturing and produc-
tion. Electronics-wise, we can mostly do custom

nish designs in-house and source the rest from our
best suppliers and vendors.

68 enLIGHTenment Magazine | february 2017
www.enlightenmentmag.com