Baken I

BAKEN / NDSM / Amsterdam Dance Event / 2020

By Boris Acket, Chris van Meer, Lumus Instruments in collaboration with Ampco Flashlight, van Ham tenten en podia & Think! AV. Commissioned by Stichting NDSM Werf for Amsterdam Dance Event 2020 / ‘Because the Night’.

A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location, used to guide sailors and travellers, navigate planes & to enable calls for help. The oldest known beacons were big fires on hills along the coast, warning for steep and dangerous cliffs along the shoreline. One of the most famous examples is the lighthouse of Alexandria built 280 v.C. on the island of Pharos. This lighthouse was active for almost 1500 years ensuring safe passage of ships along the coast of Egypt. 

As lighthouses and other beacons help to navigate, attract attention and guide lost travellers, artist Boris Acket, creative producer Chris van Meer & light artists/coders Lumus Instruments decided to build a beacon for Amsterdam Dance Event 2020: a calming lantern on the horizon in these uncertain times. The work was designed to communicate a sign of life, not so much only to guide or give direction. The work could also be interpreted as a subtle cry for help. 

When observed closely one could distinguish an animated heartbeat in the composition; a sound translated to light, without being hearable. The work seems to emphasise the deafening silence of ADE 2020 with the theme: SILENCE BETWEEN THE NOTES.