Skårersletta Street in the Lørenskog municipality outside Oslo, Norway, has recently been transformed into a charming downtown thoroughfare. The extensive upgrade of the roadway prioritized pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport. It also now features creative and playful artwork, including cobblestone art, painted bus stops, animal tracks in the pavement, and a light art installation entitled Bildedikt for Skårersletta , which translates to “Picture Poems For Skårersletta.” Continue reading to learn how the design team created these “Picture Poems” using Image Spot Gobo Projectors and Rosco Custom Glass Gobos.
Picture Poem projected on the urban north side of Skårersletta street:
A landscape map taken from the area around Skårersletta with a boy in a pedal car – A hand holding a model of a hospital filled with workers from the early 1900s – Young people dancing on a historic water wheel from Losby farm.
Lighting Designer Martin Holmberg from Cowi used fourteen Image Spot® and seven Image Spot® Mini gobo projectors, provided by Rebel Light AS, to illuminate Skårersletta Street with poetic gobo images. The artwork, which was created by Artist Pierre Lionel Matte, was turned into Full-Color Rosco Custom Glass Gobos to showcase Lørenskog's local history, landscape, and people. The gobo projections were designed to juxtapose old & new, traditional & modernity, and the city’s rural south & its urban north – all to convey different times and stories along Skårersletta Street.
A saw and roots – A green circle representing a forest with water and animal tracks – A luminous berry picker.
Image Spot Projectors were installed in seven distinct areas along the 800m road. Each area had two Image Spots, outfitted with 19º lenses, and one Image Spot Mini with an 11º lens installed overhead on a light pole. The fixtures were mounted at different heights and angles to create diverse compositions of gobo projections. “Projecting a variety of colourful gobos in different sizes and angles onto the ground created a vibrant and versatile result that we are very happy with,” said Marianne Simensen from Rebel Light.
An antique wheel whisk from Lørenskog Bygdemuseum – A private photo album showing immigrant family stories – Silhouettes of trees against the sky with hands holding each other.
Rosco’s gobo production team worked closely with Pierre Lionel Matte and the team at Rebel Light to accurately reproduce the colors of Pierre's artwork as gobo projections. Rosco’s project manager, Steve Larkins, said: “The main challenge was making sure the levels of colour were enough to retain colour saturation when being wet etched, but maintaining the overall look of the artwork that Pierre had produced, by not changing the delicate colours he had conceived within each design.”
The IP65-rated Image Spot projectors illuminate Skårersletta Street all year round. If you are ever in the area, be sure to take a nighttime stroll down "Main Street Lørenskog" to experience the history and culture of the town through this captivating light installation. Additional artwork by Pierre Lionel Matte featuring sandblasted animal tracks in the pedestrian walkways is also visible during the daytime when the gobos are turned off.
If you would like more information about the fixtures that Lighting Designer Martin Holmberg and Rebel Light used to create this lighting installation, please explore the Image Spot Product Page on the Rosco website.