Dutch artist and designer Daan Roosegaarde has created a ‘dancing lights’ artwork that in addition to its mesmerizing and aesthetic visuals, also helps a leek field grow more sustainably!
In his most recent project ‘GROW’, Roosegaarde has used spectrums of LED lights to enhance the growth of an otherwise ordinary field of leek. The project is inspired by scientific light recipes that have been proven to help grow healthier plants and crops, and reduce the need for pesticides by up to 50%.
“A specific ultraviolet light activates the defense system of plants. And what is interesting is that it works on all crops so we can reduce the use of pesticides,” explained Rooosegaarde to Dezeen.
Pesticides are harmful both to the crops’ biological diversity, and the environment, so finding a way to reduce these damaging effects will be beneficial to everyone.
The project uses a design-based light recipe of red, blue, and ultraviolet lights to shine across an enormous field of 20,000 m2 crops of leek in Lelystad in the Netherlands, creating a poetic ‘dreamscape’ that highlights the beauty of agriculture that feeds us.
GROW is set to show the importance of innovation in agriculture by implementing a cutting-edge light design to help the fields of leek grow more sustainably and ‘make the farmer the hero’, and inspiring them to use lights more innovatively.
As night falls, the leek field turns into a luminous light exhibit with entrancing dancing beams of red and blue lights shining on the crops.
The project leaders have placed the LED devices in different locations around the field, to help distribute the light evenly across the crops while the devices move up and down.
“It’s very futuristic and also very romantic, in a way,” stated Roosegaarde.
The lights are also solar-powered, so they are more sustainable than traditional growth aids.
According to the World Economic Forum, Roosegaarde’s eventual goal is to take the artwork on tour to 40 different countries, with each featuring a local or national crop and tailored light recipe.
“I want to design things which make people curious about the future, not sad or mad,” added Roosegaarde. “Light is my language. Light is not decoration, it’s activation and it’s communication.”
Speaking of innovations in agriculture, check out the world’s largest rooftop farm in Paris!
