Dreaming in Color
Posted by: 
intolerable
N 47° 37.433 W 122° 21.068
10T E 548753 N 5274701
Large lighting artwork which spans the promenade between the Phelps Center and McCaw Hall.
Waymark Code: WM4B51
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 07/31/2008
Views: 42
Found above the Kreielsheimer Promenade between the Phelps Center and McCaw Hall at Seattle Center, this large lighting work of art is best seen at night.
The massive work consists of nine 30 foot tall metal scrims, some of them up to 60 feet in length. These hang 12 feet above and 20 feet apart spanning the length of the promenade, some 300 feet. These metal scrims capture the programmed light from the mounted lighting at the top. The light show itself is choreograph with music.
Artist Leni Schwendinger says about the work, "We used the musical score structure as a tool to orchestrate the colors and timing of the colors; where you have music on the vertical axis, and time on the horizontal axis, the scrims become our musical instruments."
As an individual makes their way through the promenade, the color and intensity of the light is affect by their view of the scrims, making the work an interactive and unique experience.
The work was originally conceived by LMN Archtiects, who later worked with theater designer Robert Israel to come up with the initial design concept. Artist Leni Schwendinger was brought in to help complete the project and worked on the programmed and scored lighting. Her work expands on the concepts of Color Field painting and color theory explorations, which emerged in the 1950s, by bringing it to a modern medium.
Dreaming In Color was created as part of the landscaping for the opening of the new opera house, Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. McCaw Hall opened in June of 2003.