Holzer Wows At The Whitney What fluorescent lamps are to artist Dan Flavin’s work, LEDs are to Jenny Holzer’s. The largest and most comprehensive U.S. retrospective of her work in 15 years, Jenny Holzer: PROTECT PROTECT, is on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art through May 31.
Known for incorporating text and nontraditional media in public settings, Holzer’s installations take on spatial dimensions. Her signature medium—LED electronic signs—has enabled her to produce a body of work that explores issues of social and cultural importance, using everyday technologies.
The exhibit includes several major new works, such as Purple (2008, shown above), that use LED technology in ways that appear very architectural. Combining bold color and sculptural form with an interplay of text from declassified government documents, the work presents a dichotomy between the individual and the institution. Transforming message and meaning into form and light, Holzer’s work, simultaneously poetic and brash, redefines the notion of introspection and the visitor’s museum-going experience.
Osram And Traxon/E:CUE Form Led Joint Venture Traxon Technologies/e:cue lighting control and Osram have announced a partnership to develop LED-based lighting systems for the architectural, entertainment, hospitality, retail- and exhibit-display, and corporate arenas. Traxon/e:cue will remain an independent brand under Osram as part of this recent acquisition. The joint venture enables each party to bring its particular expertise to the mix, providing a full suite of hardware, software, lighting control, and distribution options.
Arrow and Cree Partner Online Arrow Electronics and LED manufacturer Cree have launched a new website—arrownac.com/cree—to provide designers a comprehensive online resource to aid in selecting the right Cree LED for project applications, accessing product information, design tools, and training resources. The site highlights Cree’s product characterization tool, which enables three LED modules to be compared simultaneously.
NEMA White Paper Promotes Standards For LED Sockets And Interconnects To respond to the specific technical attributes of LEDs, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has published LSD 44 Solid-State Lighting—The Need for a New Generation of Sockets & Interconnects. The white paper includes an overview of lighting sockets and interconnects from the Edison lamp to present-day technologies, and makes the case for solid-state lighting industry standards.
In a prepared statement, Kevin Dowling, chairman of the Solid-State Lighting Section at NEMA that produced the paper, notes, “It is essential to develop designs for tomorrow’s lighting solutions in order to encourage innovation, achieve optimum performance, and advance new lighting technology.” The document can be downloaded for free at NEMA’s website: nema.org/stds/lsd44.cfm.
Bill Clarifies Responsibility For Federally Sponsored Energy Star Program For SSL The 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, which became law on March 11, establishes the federal year funding cycle and provides $33 million for the commercial buildings initiative and no less than $25 million for solid-state lighting research and development. The bill stipulates: “The Department [of Energy] shall implement an Energy Star Program for solid-state lighting and develop Energy Star specifications for solid-state lighting in connection with the nation’s efforts to promote the commercialization of these products.”
The bill’s language clarifies confusion that emerged in August 2008 between the DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency regarding which agency was overseeing eligibility criteria for SSL fixtures. It places responsibility solely in the hands of the DOE and in turn reinforces the DOE SSL Version 1.0 as the valid specification for the DOE SSL Energy Star Criteria program.
DOE Launches SSL Stress-Testing Initiative The DOE is requesting capability statements from research facilities and/or testing laboratories for developing and conducting stress testing of LED-based integral lamps. This testing will be performed to support the DOE SSL activities associated with the CALiPER program and the L Prize Competition. The pre-qualification announcement can be viewed at ssl.energy.gov.
