The Laserpod

In my last post I talked about artist Chris Levine’s portraits of Queen Elizabeth. I should also note that Levine is the creator of the Laserpod, a decorative lighting device using lasers. There are different versions of housings; here is one of them:

From the Laserpod website: “The product uses three electronic lasers and three blue and purple LEDs … chosen by the inventor so that the combination of their wavelengths as a background to the red lasers gives a super sensory experience.” The new Laserpod Supernova includes a green laser in addition to the three red lasers.

Laserpod comes with diffusers which go on top of the cylinder, to create an ambient lamp. Of course, most laserists would remove the diffusers to create a mini-lightshow on walls or ceiling:

Pricing seems reasonable for an artist-created laser lighting device: USD $60 for the least-costly units, and $199 for the Supernova with one green/three red lasers plus 3 LEDs. If you are interested, check out the Laserpod website.

 

Laser Queen Elizabeth

In 2003, artist Chris Levine photographed Queen Elizabeth II in preparation for making a holographic stereogram. This involved rotating a camera around Her Majesty and making about 200 photos, each from a slightly different angle. Later, vertical slices of each photo were assembled into a single white-light viewable hologram. Since each eye sees the subject from a slightly different angle, the image looks 3D in the horizontal direction — you can move your head from side to side to see “around” the subject.

Levine had the technical ability to create a direct laser hologram of Her Majesty, but chose not to for two reasons. The Queen would have had to visit his studio (the stereogram photos were shot at Buckingham Palace), and there were also safety concerns about lasers being used on the Queen.

Levine has since gone on to create additional artworks, based on the 2003 sittings. One of these uses lasers through a crystal to make abstract light patterns on an outline of the Queen.

There is a detailed story about Levine’s work with the Queen, and his resulting artworks, from the Daily Telegraph (U.K.). The story also has links to videos of his holographic and “laser queen” works.

If you’ll be in London between March 14-23 2008, you can see Levine’s Lightness of Being, described by one critic as “the greatest portrait yet of Elizabeth II”. It will be exhibited along with related works from Levine’s royal sessions, at StolenSpace. The gallery also has for sale lenticular prints signed by the artist for £975.