Circadian Dreams

The story

LED-Flex Limited UK realized this beautiful art project in the London Design Museum for the designer Dr. Helga Schmid. A DiGidot C4 Live 4, controlled by Madrix was used to generate the colours and effects for the 18 meters of Domed Neonflex from LED-FLEX.

“Dr. Schmid's installation, Circadian Dreams, is developed as part of her ongoing artistic research on Uchronia (defined as temporal utopia). In this installation the space acts as a clock. Twelve minutes represent one circadian day of 24 hours, each minute representing two hours. The light and sound scape relates to your body phases, with a bright blue tone that activates you, an intensive red-orange which makes you sleepy, and darkness which brings you to a sleep/dream state. The phases are based on peak daily times for logical reasoning, concentration, muscle strength, up to melatonin secretion and highest body temperature. The typology of a home, with kitchen and bedroom, becomes irrelevant when the bodily rhythm provides new criteria for dwelling. The work investigates the nature of temporality in relation to the future of dwelling.

Modern technology has fostered an increasing temporal fragmentation, heralding an era of flexible time with ever more complex processes of synchronization, leaving us with the feeling of 'no time'. By investigating the topic of time through an interdisciplinary approach of design, chronobiology and chronosociology, Dr. Helga Schmid opens up possibilities for new politics of time. Uchronian thinking not only involves unlearning time but is also concerned with developing alternative ways of understanding and using time.”