In this illuminating interview, Mads Christensen, the innovative light artist, sheds light on his unique approach to merging technology and art. Known for his radiant, immersive installations, Christensen shares insights into his creative process, his fascination with the interplay of light and motion, and how his background in design informs his work. He reflects on the evolution of his practice, the influence of digital technology on contemporary art, and his pursuit of creating electrifying, ever-changing visual experiences. Through this conversation, Christensen’s experimental vision and boundary-pushing artistry shine brightly, offering a compelling look into the mind of an artist redefining the possibilities of light as a medium.
Luntz – What is your earliest memory of light, and your affinity towards exploring it?
Christensen – I’ve always been fascinated by light. When I was a kid, I would flip the lights on and off and on and off until my mom told me to stop. Back then it was incandescent bulbs. They were expensive, they were impractical. Later in life I became interested in how developments in LED technology had paved the way for artistic expression.
Luntz – What correlations did you draw between your experiences with natural light, the Sun, and your practice with software engineering?
Christensen – One of my early inspirations came from working in a windowless office not experiencing how the natural light had changed while I was at work. I would arrive in the morning and a certain light would be present. When I left in the afternoon, I was often surprised by how the quality of light had changed. So I developed a light sensor, which could be placed outside the office and it would wirelessly transmit the luminosity and chromaticity of the daylight to a LED-based light fixture placed inside my office. The project was never fully finished, but my fascination with perception of light stayed with me.
Luntz – At what point did you decide do channel your education in software engineering into creating art?
Christensen – I connected with some artists who were working with light as medium at an arts festival. I was fascinated by the work they did, and I also discovered what had happened in terms of development of LEDs as a viable full-color light source. Now it was possible to create any color using red green and blue color channels. I also realized that it took a unique combination of creative talent and technical skills to develop and execute these artworks. I found this challenge very exciting so I started making experiments, practicing how to see, and how to translate my ideas into art.
Luntz – Your work carries obvious painterly qualities. Are there any works, historic or contemporary, that have had influence on your work throughout your career?
Christensen – Coming from a technical background, I was never interested in showing off the technology on its own. I may be fascinated with the technical details, but to me it was always about using the technology as a tool to create art, just like a paintbrush is never presented as a thing on its own, but rather is an extension of the artist’s body, a tool that helps the artist express an idea. So I deliberately decided to hide the technological aspects of the work and focus on the expression.
Luntz – Could you walk us through your technical process?
Christensen – I consider the process two-pronged: First I create the canvas, then I paint on it. The “canvas” is comprised of a grid of LEDs. There are power supplies and a small computer which controls the LEDs. I use cast acrylic sheet for diffusion, due to the very organic way it diffuses light, which is akin to the way light diffuses and refracts in human skin or marble. This creates an almost ethereal three-dimensional effect. Once the canvas is complete, I switch into a more free-flowing creative mode where I play with shapes, movement and color. My works frequently have physical elements embedded which creates sections or divisions that constrain and direct the light. In that way, I’m able to achieve a sense of detail that appears natural and painterly.
Luntz – How do you work on the light sequences with each piece? Is it pre determined or do you experiment as you move through the process as a form of improvisation?
Christensen – In contrast to traditional software development, where a given input is expected to yield a certain output, when I write the software code that goes inside my artworks, controlling the light sequence, I often allow what would otherwise be considered mistakes or bugs to inform the direction of my work. I also work with random patterns in a way I call “controlled use of chance”. I use a lot of layering and repeating but asynchronous elements, which when combined create a very complex pattern that still retains the simplicity of its core elements. I think it’s the same kind of perfection/imperfection that we often see in the natural world, which makes every leaf appear unique, but still familiar, makes every sunset recognizable, but still breathtaking.
Luntz – Could you elaborate on the idea and importance of ‘constraint’ in your work? Would you describe yourself as a minimalist?
Christensen – Our electronic devices: phones, laptops, TVs, offer ever-increasing detail, higher frame rates, more pixels, faster streams of information, doom-scrolling is real. I try to go the other way by deliberately reducing the amount of information, slowing things down, not showing off the technology on its terms, but rather employing the technology on my terms. In a way my artworks put a filter on the digital processes that are inherent in the creation of the work. The outcome is something that looks analog, organic, natural, and ultimately human.
Luntz – Do you see any connection between your work and – say Color Field painting – minimalism or post structuralism?
Christensen – Yes, absolutely. I think my work is in direct alignment with pioneers in the science of color perception, such as Josef Albers and his “Interaction of Color” and James Turrell’s ganzfeld experiments. I believe my work continues this exploration using more recent developments in lighting, and computer and fabrication technology. Growing up in Denmark I was exposed to the rich tradition of Danish design and architecture, which is frequently minimal and functional. Later on, living in California focused my attention on the distinct differences in natural light between California and Scandinavia.
Luntz – There is a very rigid aspect into working with pixels in terms of software engineering yet the works themselves are highly drawn from nature itself, where colors and pixels are naturally blurred. How do you balance such two opposite ways of seeing and thinking?
Christensen – I think that is what makes it so exciting to work with: It is the juxtaposition of high-tech, digital fabrication, precise technology, with the natural world and how we perceive light, color and movement through our very analog evolutionary sensing organs. So I think it’s a matter of making the technology human-friendly in some sense. “When in doubt, use less technology” is a saying I’ve been fond of throughout most of my life. I love technology and what it brings us, but I’m also noticing that we are still deeply fascinated by nature. With my art I am hoping to balance the two.
Luntz – The idea of weightlessness is a repeating element throughout your work. How do you, both technically and in terms of meaning, achieve this effect?
Christensen – Light is weightless, so I am interested in reducing the physical embodiment of my artwork into something that matches that. For instance, many of my works are mounted in such a way that they appear to be floating, and I use white translucent materials, which further supports the idea of weightlessness.
Luntz – One interesting part of your work is that the dimension of time is an important factor. Your work isn’t static, it changes over time. How does this figure into your work?
Christensen – My early works often featured intense, even chaotic movement, and while that served a purpose from an experiential point of view, I realized that if I wanted my artworks to be part of people’s lives, to be in their living spaces, without constantly demanding attention, I had to slow the motion down to the point where it’s almost imperceptible. The subtle movements and changes are similar to what you might experience around sunset or sunrise when you look away for a moment, and then you look back, and it looks completely different, and yet very familiar. I try to convey the same experience through my artwork; the familiarity but also the constant progress of time.
Luntz – How do you incorporate new technologies into your art in today’s ever evolving digital world?
Christensen – I am always looking for new technology to see how it might fit with my current artistic direction, or how it may enable new expression. But as I mentioned, I’m not interested in showing off the technology on its own. I am interested in how technology can help express an idea, so while I constantly update and improve my technology behind the scenes, the changes are frequently indistinguishable from the outside.
Luntz – How does your earliest pieces relate to the later pieces – and has there been any specific progression in the work?
Christensen – The more time we spend with a topic, the more sensitive we become to delicate nuances, so I think having explored this type of expression for almost two decades has fine-tuned my perception and my thinking. It’s like learning to play a musical instrument. It takes time to learn the mechanics and then, with enough practice, at some point, you realize that you’re starting to make music, rather than just play individual notes. Hopefully when you look at my recent works, they are a lot more “musical” than they were 20 years ago.
Luntz – The idea of experientially is an important factor throughout your work, especially with the public installations. Could you please talk about this ideas – is there a message you’d like your work to convey or a certain feeling your viewer to experience?
Christensen – My art invites the viewer on a journey. How each person experiences the artwork is a matter of perception. As we know, our perception is easily altered by internal and external factors, so I do not expect each viewer to have the same experience as I did when I created the work. In a sense, I think my work is like instrumental music. It provides a state of mind rather than send the viewer on a specific journey. For me, the important thing is to allow the viewer to see something new, to embark a new journey, to venture down a new path, maybe it’s meditation, maybe it’s adventure, but hopefully it’s rewarding or enlightening in some way.
Mads Christensen has cultivated his creative prowess to create visual and emotional experiences using light as medium. Trained as an electrical engineer, the sculptures are a fusion of his uniquely written software and the intangible qualities of his artist practice. Following in the footsteps of groundbreaking artists exploring this medium such as James Turrell, Doug Wheeler, Dan Flavin, and Olafur Eliasson, Christensen is recognized by collectors and museum professionals as possessing vast and palpable creativity, technical expertise and visual sophistication to perpetuate this fascinating evolution of light as art.
I am inspired by light. And how can we not be inspired by light? The sun is the source of energy for everyone and everything in existence. We all pause for a minute to take in the sunset, or take a deep breath when the sun rises above the horizon as a new day begins. The transitions between day and night, and night and day, are deeply meaningful to us on a basic existential level, a direct emotional connection to our brains. In our modern lives we have come to depend less on these transitions but they are still ingrained in us. The sun existed long before we were here and will continue to emit its abundant energy long after we are gone. To me the sun represents eternity and I see it as the only constant in our being. The sun is the ultimate time keeper. This is why I am compelled to use light as medium incorporating temporal elements. My work pulls from these fundamental entities, expressing light and time in new ways that remind us where we all came from.