Infinite Wave Lighting Installation by Chao Lin Cheng is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2025 Bronze A' Design Award in Lighting Projects and Light Art Design Competition Category.
BronzeLighting Projects· 2025
Infinite Wave Lighting Installation
Client: Yuejin Art Museum & Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tainan City Government
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Lighting Projects Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #162966The Design
About Infinite Wave Lighting Installation
Infinite Wave is a design that materializes the flows of water and the variation of time in the Yuejin Port of Tainan, Taiwan. The installation takes on varied appearances as day transitions into night, where artificial and natural light cross paths, guiding viewers to perceive changes in both space and time. As moonlight slowly emerges, crimson rays reminiscent of blood permeate the artwork, allowing the contours to come into clarity. By the dead of night, as artificial light spreads across the installation, multidimensional light waves intertwine once again in space.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
Infinite Wave Lighting Installation is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. Infinite Wave Lighting Installation is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. Infinite Wave Lighting Installation splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Where to Get It
Bespoke Light Art and Lighting Installation Design
We specialize in commissioned light art installations for cultural institutions, festivals, and public spaces. Our computational design process and mastery of optical fiber systems create immersive experiences that transform how people perceive space and time. Recognized with the prestigious A' Design Award.
Discuss Your ProjectInterviews
Grand Interview
Your innovative use of optical fibers as both structural elements and light carriers in Infinite Wave Lighting Installation represents a significant breakthrough in lighting design - could you elaborate on how this dual functionality concept evolved during your creative process?
The geometry of Infinite Wave was inspired by the Möbius strip, which I used as the foundation for creating a continuous and stable form. The installation is built from six structural surfaces that interlock to form this geometry. As the design evolved from surface modeling to a line-based framework, I realized that organizing all the linear elements into two layers could create a meaningful hierarchy. The primary layer, made of metal, provides the structural framework, while the secondary layer, composed of optical fibers, carries the light. Through this approach, light becomes more than a decorative feature—it acts as an essential structural element that defines both the form and the atmosphere of the installation.
The Infinite Wave Lighting Installation creates a fascinating interplay between natural and artificial light throughout the day - what inspired you to explore this temporal dimension, and how does it connect to the cultural significance of Yuejin Port?
With a background in both landscape and architecture, I’ve always been interested in how material textures and physical phenomena interact with their surrounding environment. During the material testing phase, I found that optical fibers are susceptible to ambient light, making them less suitable for conventional outdoor lighting applications. However, this sensitivity also revealed a fascinating relationship with the natural conditions of Yuejin Port. The variations in sunlight throughout the day and the shifting water levels over time create a dialogue with the optical fibers. In this way, the changing light and the tidal movements of the port merge into a single temporal experience, allowing the material and the environment to respond to one another.
Your Bronze A' Design Award-winning Infinite Wave Lighting Installation showcases a remarkable integration of computational design and traditional craftsmanship - could you share the challenges and discoveries you encountered while merging these different approaches?
The geometry of Infinite Wave was developed and simulated using digital tools, such as Grasshopper. The primary structure was fabricated using 5-axis CNC machining, while the secondary structure—the optical fibers—was woven through the framework like threads. Originally soft, the fibers gradually formed a solid yet translucent surface during the reinforcement process. This project combines highly digital fabrication with traditional craftsmanship. By using hollow metal tubes, we were able to neatly house all electrical components, thereby simplifying the overall form. The structural metal framework also accommodated the minor variances inherent in hand assembly. These subtle differences, rather than being seen as flaws, became an expressive part of the installation itself.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- Infinite Wave takes on different appearances as day transitions into night, where artificial and natural light interact, guiding viewers to perceive the changes in space and time. As moonlight slowly emerges, crimson rays reminiscent of blood gradually permeate the entire installation, sharpening its contours from blur to clarity. By the dead of night, as artificial light spreads across the installation, multidimensional light waves intertwine once again in space.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Width 4,000mm x Depth 4,200mm x Height 2,500mm
- Tags
- Pavilion, Sculpture, Optical Fibers, Interactive Art, Lighting Installation, Art Installation
- Production Technology
- This artwork is produced through computational design tools, laser cutting machines, and optical fibers materials.
- Design Challenge
- In this project, artist Cheng Chao Lin uses the optical fibers as the main structure. For the first time, the light becomes attachable in the pavilion, creating the expression of lighting as well as connecting the whole structure. Based on the geometric research, three-dimensional laser cutting technology is used to determine the orientation of each metal unit, ensuring precise angles and locations before the units are accurately assembled.
- Research
- The Infinite Wave is a lighting installation based on the Mobius strip folding structure. It focuses on visual changes in topology and explores the interactions between lines, surfaces, and volumes. The installation utilizes lines to maximize visual impact, and uses computational tools to calculate and assemble the structure. In addition, the design also seeks to further integrate the manufacturing technology in Taiwan by building a connection between art and local industry.
- Inspiration
- The shape of Infinite Wave concretes the flows of water and the variation of time in the Yuejin Port of Tainan, Taiwan. The lighting installation is crafted from interwoven optical fibers, transforming light from a physical phenomenon into a tangible structure. In the artwork, light serves simultaneously as a medium for recording time and as building material. Each optical fiber, varying in length, delineates the diffusion range of light and captures its trajectory through inherent vectors.
- Project Duration
- The artwork was exhibited from January 2024 to March 2024 in Tainan, Taiwan.
- Operation Flow
- In the depths of the night, red beams of light traverse the void, resembling a guiding light slowly revealing the transformation of the earth. As wanders immerse themselves in this infinite geometric illusion, multidimensional light waves intertwine in space, guiding them in countless directions while simultaneously causing them to gradually lose their way. Through continuous exploration, consciousness will eventually return from blur to clarity.
- Team Members
- Chao Lin Cheng
- Image Credits
- Image #1: Photographer FIXER Photographic Studio, 2024
Image #2: Photographer FIXER Photographic Studio, 2024
Image #3: Photographer FIXER Photographic Studio, 2024
Image #4: Photographer FIXER Photographic Studio, 2024
Image #5: Photographer FIXER Photographic Studio, 2024
Video Credits: Chao Lin Cheng
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