6 Artists Designing with Light

In the modern era, dance has evolved into a multisensory architecture. We are witnessing a "vibrant" shift toward immersive environments where the dancer’s movement actually generates the light and projections that surround them. These artists treat the stage as a living canvas, proving that technology, when handled with sensitivity, can amplify the human spirit.

1. Spectra Studio (USA): The Immersive Sculptors

Spectra Studio operates at the vibrant intersection of choreography, light installation, and spatial design. Their work—such as the project Parallels—is a masterclass in how light can be used to physically sculpt a room around a moving body, creating a sense of place that feels both futuristic and organic. By using high-definition projectors and custom software, they transform standard performance into an experiential symphony of layered light effects rendered on a human scale. Their commitment to exploring the tension between technology and human emotion makes them a cornerstone of the modern light-art movement.

• Link: spectra.studio

2. Adrien M & Claire B (France): The Digital Poets

This French duo creates performances where dancers interact with live-generated digital particles that respond to their every touch. Their work, such as Pixel or Le Mouvement de l'Air, uses projection mapping to turn the stage into a shifting dreamscape where bodies appear to interact with virtual wind, rain, and weightless environments. They treat digital tools as poetic keys to operate machines, allowing the performers to inhabit symbolic experiences that bridge the material and immaterial worlds. The result is a celebration of the living world shared among living beings.

• Link: am-cb.net

3. teamLab (Japan): The Immersive Collective

While global icons for their massive installations, teamLab’s work with digital technology and dance explores how body movement can transform a shared environment in real-time. In performances like Crows are Chased, they use "ultra-subjective space" to dissolve the boundaries between the dancer, the viewer, and the artwork itself. They are creators who believe in the power of a borderless world, where the cycle of birth and death is reflected through digital flowers that bloom or wither based on human presence. Their work is a high-tech expression of our own love for a  and ever-changing landscape.

• Link: teamlab.art

4. Chunky Move (Australia): The Kinetic Innovators

Based in Melbourne, Chunky Move is a specialist in biological and technological integration. Works like Mortal Engine uses video motion sensing to create shadow-play where light outlines the dancers' bodies like a digital aura or heat-sensing machine image. The stage becomes an intoxicated prospect, exploring metaphysical extensions of touch through kaleidoscopic surfaces that respond with finger-tip exactness. Their team is constantly pushing the envelope of what a body can represent when it is illuminated by the cutting edge of interactive software.

• Link: chunkymove.com

5. Hiroaki Umeda (Japan): The Data Choreographer

Hiroaki Umeda is a force who acts as a choreographer, sound designer, and visual artist, often performing in the midst of blasting electronic noise and manic lights. In pieces like Holistic Strata, he dissolves all elements—body, light, and sound—into the same units of information (pixels) to search for a common denominator of movement. His work challenges the audience's senses to the limit, creating a digital reality where everything on stage is evanescent and doomed to vanish in the next moment. His minimalist aesthetic is a powerful reminder of the clarity and survival of the human spirit in a world of constant change.

• Link: hiroakiumeda.com

6. Klaus Obermaier (Austria): The Projection Pioneer

Klaus Obermaier has spent decades exploring the possibilities of interactive media, most notably by projecting digital images directly onto the moving bodies of dancers in works like Apparition and D.A.V.E.. His interactive installations, such as Dancing House, go beyond passive reception to create an immersive, communicative experience where the facade of a building reacts directly to the movement of the audience. By blurring the lines between what is physical and what is projected, he creates a real-time work of art that transforms technology into a poetic, vivid experience. His work is an invitation to see the world as a "vibrant" and constantly evolving dialogue.

• Link: exile.at

Our desire is to share the spectacular with our community, celebrating the makers who refuse to stay stuck in a single medium. At our core, we believe that the same vibrant curiosity required to express a landscape through flavor is what draws us to these novel experiences in light and movement. While we use the land and the glass to tell our story, we look to these artists to remind us that the body itself is a vibrant landscape of infinite potential. By observing how these pioneers redesign the space around them, we are inspired to approach our own community and craft with a renewed sense of wonder.

Art is meant to be lived—bring a touch of the spectacular into your own home. Before your next social ritual see if you can incorporate these into gathering.

1. The Projection Shift: If you have a home projector, try casting vibrant, abstract textures onto your surfaces to mimic the immersive environments of Adrien M & Claire B.

2. The Community Flow: Put your phone flashlight on and rest it in a way that is hidden at first glance and causes shadows to be cast when someone walks past.  This subtle shift change the room’s architecture, turning a simple gathering into a shared, spectacular performance.

Image = Spectra Studio - Concave