Architects
Michael McDonough (with Andrew Neal)
"Lit"
LIT is the first in a series of light sculpture installations throughout the Hudson Valley by architect and artist Michael McDonough and lighting designer and inventor Andy Neal. The Quadricentennial memorial celebrates the spirit of exploration that is epitomized by Henry Hudson. This legacy, rooted in the Hudson Valley, has been confirmed throughout the centuries. A current example is embodied in this installation. McDonough explains, “The Hudson Valley has been a hot spot for disruptive cultural and scientific technology for 400 years. From the engineering that engendered the Brooklyn Bridge, to the birth of American landscape painting, to modern American tourism, the social equality and liberation movements of the 1960s, and the environmental movement, a sense of discovery and innovation proceeds from Henry Hudson’s ships plying northward from the sea in 1609 to the now nascent “tech valley” industries of today.”
McDonough and Neal are planning a number of interventions throughout the summer, extending their creative involvement beyond the opening date of the exhibition and beyond the Byrdcliffe site. The nature of the piece will change, varying from the recognizable word "LIT" to a dynamic linear sculptural of abstract patterns. Significantly, the changes will be randomly generated by the interaction of sun and shade on the solar PV panel that illuminate the sculpture. The installation can also be run off batteries, or onsite stationary bicycle or wind generators, elements that McDonough and Neal imagine could be the basis for evening performances. Additionally, the installation can be relocated to function as a backdrop or stage set. All of this underlines McDonough's belief that "nature and science can interact via technology, yielding productive and ennobling results."
Collectively known as LIT GREEN, the LIT sculpture SERIES comprises an innovative LED lighting system. One of its many innovations is that it is zero energy/zero carbon footprint lighting run on direct current (DC) from solar panels. LIT refers to a symbolically “lit fuse” of technological and artistic innovation in the 21st-century. The project is literally lit by the power of the sun, and figuratively a call to innovation and the cultural, scientific, and economic force that such innovation can become. To that point, the LED lamps used in the sculpture — one of the most energy efficient sources of artificial light on earth — are manufactured in the Hudson Valley by Neal’s firm, ANL Ltd.
Bio
Michael McDonough AIA, NCARB, USGBC, Hon. FIGP is an award–winning architect, industrial designer, consultant, and author, who specializes in environmentally appropriate systems and advanced building technologies internationally. He consults on zero energy/zero carbon energy buildings and has designed a wide range of structures and objects including offices, airports, galleries, multi–media environments, resort buildings, multifamily residences, manufactured housing, shops, furniture, exhibits, jewelry, and custom residences. McDonough believes that traditional design and modern design — nature and science — can be advantageously synthesized, and that new types of buildings and a broad range of technologies will, accordingly, emerge. He has published over 80 articles and white papers, and two books on architecture, energy, and design. Long an active artistic collaborator, he has also exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, and worked with painters, sculptors, writers, designers, filmmakers, and scientists, notably award–winning author Tom Wolfe, industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger, lighting designer Howard Brandston, and fashion designer Steven Sprouse. In the field of energy research McDonough has collaborated with New York State’s Energy Research and Development Authority in the development of an award-winning zero energy/zero carbon footprint air conditioning system, and is currently working on the development of advanced lighting and high–value/high-production zero energy/zero carbon agricultural systems. Educated at the University of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Pennsylvania, and a cofounder of the experimental Bamboo Research Initiative at Rhode Island School of Design, McDonough has taught and lectured internationally. He has also designed and built e–House, a net zero–energy/zero carbon Building Science and Design Laboratory, a house the international press has termed “the most sustainable building in the world” having “the coolest rooms on the planet.”
Andrew Neal IESNA, is an award–winning lighting, lamp, luminaire, reflector technologies, and computerized systems controls designer with 30 years experience in entertainment lighting, research and development, and manufacturing in the US and Europe. Mr. Neal has worked both as an individual designer and collaboratively within development teams throughout his career, and often at the forefront of design within the industry. His work in manufactured entertainment lighting systems and components includes product and systems development with such companies as Digital Lighting Desk Company and its successor firm DLD Productions, Altman Stage Lighting, Vinten Electro Optics, Arri Film Lighting, Lee Lighting, and Philips Bath. His work with lighting manufacturers includes consulting and product development for Philips Lighting, Strand Lighting, Sylvania, Martin Professional, Cinemills, and General Electric. His product testing experience includes development of product testing protocols for Underwriters Laboratories. He also worked as a consultant with the solid state technologies and nanotechnologies pioneer Dr. Ramesh Bhargava at Nanocrystals Lighting at PACE University, and was involved in the development of first iterations of successful LED solid state lighting. Andrew Neal maintains links to an international consortium of established electronics assembly manufacturers nationally and internationally, and heads in–house product development and testing at ANL, Ltd.
