Light Origami by Masakazu Shirane

Image by Destination New South Wales

Now through June 8, 2015, Japanese spatial designer Masakazu Shirane has installed Light Origami, a giant 3D kaleidoscope constructed using over 320 different origami shapes. Visitors to Vivid Sydney, an 18-day festival of light, music and ideas, can enter the structure, which acts like a kaleidoscope when different spectrums of light are projected into the space.

Light Origami by Masakazu Shirane

Image by Seto Moto

“On this scale,” explains the organizers, “viewers become participants and co-creators; each movement is reflected in the glass panels, the colours they wear are incorporated into the presentation of pattern and light, and when they look in different directions perspectives are altered.”

Light Origami by Masakazu Shirane

Image by Seto Moto

The story of how this installation came about is quite interesting, at least to us, because we played a part in it. Last year we spotted Shirane’s similar installation as we were going through the CS Design Award winners and decided to write about it. The post got picked up by several other media outlets including the creators project and was eventually spotted by artist and New Zealand-born project producer Reuben Young, who then reached out to Shirane to collaborate on a piece for the upcoming Vivid festival. Neat!

Light Origami by Masakazu Shirane

Image by Destination New South Wales