Multiverse by Leo Villareal — Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Lighting

This is our entry in Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Lighting.

Recently we visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.   After viewing traditional art in the West Wing, we used the moving walkway through the Concourse to the East Wing, where modern and contemporary art is displayed.  The Concourse is enveloped by the 200-foot long light sculpture Multiverse by the American artist Leo Villareal (b. 1967).  According to a National Gallery of Art webpage,

“[T]he work features approximately 41,000 computer-programmed LED nodes that run through channels along the entire 200-foot-long space… Once the appropriate hardware was installed in the existing architecture, the artist programmed sequences through his custom-designed software to create abstract configurations of light. His programming both instructs the lights and allows for an element of chance. While it is possible that a pattern will repeat during a viewer’s experience, it is highly unlikely. Still, the eye will seek patterns in the motion, a perceptual effect of the hypnotic trailing lights.”

While this sculpture was only intended to be on display for one year, until November 2009, it is still in place and mesmerizing visitors every day.

Multiverse by Leo Villareal

This photo was taken on July 3, 2019. Specs are:

Olympus TG-5, ISO 800, f/4.9, 1/30 sec, 18 mm.