Lumin-Essence is envisioned as a flexible matrix of thousands of points of light responsive to the water’s current. The organic, submerged waveform will mirror the sinuous path of the river as it meanders through the city, appearing to swim upstream like a school of fish or a serpentine constellation. The luminous structure will reveal the energy of the river, illuminating and articulating its flow. Employing the most current technology in lighting, the work is intended to reanimate, to reinterpret, and to make rivers manifest. Lumin-Essence is conceived as a model that can be adapted and transformed to multiple sites to draw people and attention to the plight of rivers internationally. The ultimate objective is to create a form of power and beauty that is essentially a river – that respects and magnifies the phenomena of water.
Substantial work on Lumin-Essence began in 2001, when Kristin Jones received a Senior Fulbright Fellowship to Rome. The initial theoretical and mathematical study conducted by the Courant Institute at New York University brought together a team of Roman colleagues from the Fluid Dynamics Department of the Engineering School of the University of Rome. A grant in 2003 from Italy’s major hydroelectric company ACEA encouraged the Italian National Institute of Naval Architecture (INSEAN) in Rome to dedicate time and resources to test the preliminary models. Luminalia, a predecessor of the work that tested the Tiber waters at the Piazza Tevere, was presented in collaboration with architect Daniel K. Brown through Tevereterno in 2007.
