Rundle Lantern: Keith enjoys the "glitz" in the Adelaide City reion of South Australia

The Rundle Lantern on the corner of Rundle and Pulteney Streets is Adelaide's 21st century light-show. Its opening party was a real traffic stopper and it's been quietly putting Adelaide on the map ever since.

This digital canvas uses technology specially designed and built right here in South Australia. The lantern was conceived, designed and built by a Rundle Street based company called Fusion. They describe themselves as an 'innovation agency' and under the guidance of Director, Damien Mair, Fusion won the contract when the Adelaide City Council called for a radical make-over of its carpark. But as Damien explains, there were a few constraints.

Damien Mair, 'Fusion': "One of the key ones is that it's a naturally ventilated carpark. We had to maintain airflow so if we were to put a kind of envelope around it, they would have to put fans and things in which would basically blow the budget for the project. We explored lots of different options but came up with the idea of creating a canvas which is presented to the viewer on the street but actually has no impact on the airflow."

Lots of shapes and colours were considered but a chance happening across an old railway box-car provided the solution.

Damien Mair, 'Fusion': "One day we were down at Port Adelaide and discovered this old train which provided an idea for solving the ventilation problem of the building. And that meant by using and flipping it around we could put it upside down. We could basically provide a flat surface to the viewer at street level but also achieve our air ventilation."

The old style louvers inspired the construction of 748 custom built aluminium panels which were carefully lifted into position to clad the 9 storey car-park. Each panel is lit up by an LED (Light Emitting Diode) unit. Each unit is capable of creating any colour in the spectrum and is controlled by a specially written computer program - another Adelaide first.

It's accessible too. You can log onto the lantern's website and design your own display. The Adelaide City Council's Ante Jurican say's it's a massive piece of public art - which is open to all.

Ante Juricin, 'Rundle Lantern': "People can do an experimental sort of theme and do different kinds of animations and story-telling on the lantern. That works well I think for people to stand there on the ground and look up and try to understand what the artist is trying to tell them with the light show."

Apart from adding colour, life and movement to the city - the Rundle lantern is taking Adelaide and South Australia to the world via U-Tube, Facebook and Google.

It's on the corner of Rundle and Pulteney Streets and turns on about 6pm each night. If you want to design your own display log onto www.rundlelantern.com.au

Rundle Lantern
Cnr Rundle & Pulteney Sts
Adelaide

Published 17th October 2010