A Giant Black Hole Installation Opened Up in Istanbul

46 beams were used to reimagine the CYGNUS X-1 collapsar as light art inside the Hilton Bomonti.

January 1, 2015, 2:30pm

All images courtesy of artist.

CYGNUS Immersive Light Installation Performance/MARKA 2014 International Brand Conference from Bi'Şeyler Yeni Medya İşleri on Vimeo.

This hypnotic performance of colliding light beams represents a journey through a black hole—CYGNUS X-1, to be specific, an X-ray source believed to be a collapsar. Known as CYGNUS, the installation was the result of a collaborative effort between Bi’Seyler New Media Works, Ouchhh, Panpiper, and Staras.

Using 46 Clay Paky Sharpy lights and 2 Atmosphere Hazers, the team plunged the audience of over 2,000 attendees of the International Brand Conference Istanbul into a supersonic spectacle of the 5-million-year-old constellation. Inside the giant conference hall of the Hilton Bomonti, light sources were placed at different heights, allowing for intersecting beams to manifest a visible void in the center, a vortex of light and form that represented CYGNUS X-1. The effort was especially monumental, in the words of Bi’Seyler, due to the difficulty in funding light art in Turkey.

CYGNUS was on display from December 18-19. Below, catch a few of our favorite moments from the performance: