Once the building work at Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre in Bangor was completed and the building open and functioning, its interior spaces could be fully appreciated. Bangor University appointed Jessica Lloyd-Jones to spend time as artist-in-residence at Pontio to investigate different approaches to creative and innovative lighting inside the
building within the publicly accessible spaces.

Her brief was to test out ideas with temporary installations and interventions as a means of developing proposals for more permanent installations. Her research included engaging and collaborating with the local community of scientists and technologists. She explored adding new lighting systems and sculptural light
installations into spaces inside the building as well as more subtle additions such as changing existing lights or adding filters to them. She tested interventions that react to natural daylight and experimented with materials.

After a period of research and experimentation, Jessica finalised five light based interventions.

Solar Chroma: A kinetic solar powered light installation suspended along the floor-to-ceiling windows. Various sized panels with a dichroic film hang at different heights, changing colour and reflecting those colours around the space. When the mini solar panels are activated, the panels also rotate creating a lively display.

Light Wheel: Inspired by a visit to the Photonics Academy of Wales at Bangor University (PAWB), Jessica created a kaleidoscopic, mechanical light wheel displaying a changing array of holographic colours and patterns. Jessica worked with local engineers to realise this large scale artwork measuring two metres across.

Spectral Shift: Suspended installation of prismatic light tubes at the windows of the Gorad restaurant at Pontio. The tubes appear almost transparent in the day, but as evening closes in, colours seem to vibrate in and from the tubes - the effect heightened by their reflections on the windows.

Spectral Sensing: Inspired by a visit to the Photonics Academy of Wales at Bangor University (PAWB), Jessica employed optical materials to produce spectral colours and pattern for this wall based artwork. Passers by ‘activate’ dynamic visual effects whereby white light can be seen splitting into different wavelengths of colour. The artwork senses light and shadow to trigger a sequence of animated lights concealed behind and array of lenses.

Arc: In the main atrium space, a dynamic light 'rope' installation suspended from the ceiling in an arc shape. Red, green and blue lights move along the 'rope' referencing the motion of a swinging pendulum. Jessica worked with lighting specialists and programmers to carefully design and choreograph the movement of colours along the arc which is at times hypnotic and other times quite playful. The resulting artwork animates the space using RGB colours to reference the language of digital colour mixing.

For more images and videos of these artworks please visit
http://jessicalloyd-jones.com/public-art