Personal Project, Mar. 2020

"Fenster am Dom" means "The window facing to the cathedral". It is a "remote" window that shows the sky of Cologne, Germany, where I used to live for seven years. There are commercial lighting devices which emit the artificial skylight as if it is a real window and real blue sky behind. However they are ultimately an imitation of the skylight for the sake of lighting effect. Eventhough I'm building physically similar object, I wondered if it's possible to give more personal meaning to the light by connecting the light to the outside world.

This pictureframe-looking-device equips 768 LED pixels that render the tiny part of the sky taken by the observation camera on the top of the WDR (Westdeutcher Rundfunk / West german broadcasting) building in Cologne.

The quality of the light is naturally far lesser compare to the commercial lighting equipments mentioned above, however the device shows stunning blue sky during the summer, and  told me (it's now on the beginning of septermber) that the daylight is becoming shorter already. During winter, I might not even be bothered to look at Germany's cold and dark winter. Yet I do feel like I'm seeing Cologne's sky behind this "window".

The camera on the WDR building is actually taking picture of the famous Cologne cathedral for every minute. In Cologne having a room with with the view of the cathedral means, even it's tiny view, few hundreads more Euros for the rent.
Now living in Tokyo, I finally got such a prestigious room!