Comic-Con, the global comic-book convention and entertainment event held annually in San Diego since its founding as a tiny gathering of fans in a hotel basement in 1970, has become the international focal point for this multi-genre art form. Last November, San Diego Comic Convention, parent company of Comic-Con, opened its long-awaited Comic-Con Museum, which will curate the best of what is often featured at Comic-Con’s annual convention. Of note is one of its most immersive exhibits, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Beyond Amazing – The Exhibition. Produced by Semmel Exhibitions, in association with Marvel and San Diego Comic Convention, the project opened on July 1 and is celebrating 60 years of the renowned web-slinger’s presence in the comic book hero pantheon.
Both the exhibition and Comic-Con Museum benefit from a particular technology that literally helps illuminate Spider-Man’s importance: elektraLite’s leading-edge Stingray Mini 20W LED profile spot fixture. One hundred and twenty-eight Stingray Minis, sold through Intelligent Lighting Creations and specified by lighting design studio Lightswitch, now light up the exhibition at an art-gallery level. Specifically, the exhibit is using 92 of the Stingray Mini’s 50˚ beam-spread model and 36 of the 36˚ model, all of them ceiling-mounted.
“This exhibit and the lighting we’ve designed and implemented for it truly reflects how comic book art in general, and especially iconic characters like Spider-Man in particular, are worthy of the status of classic art works. As such, they deserve the kind of lighting that we were able to provide with the elektraLite Stingray Mini,” says John Featherstone, Partner and Principal at Lightswitch and a veteran pop-culture lighting designer himself, having LD-ed tours for numerous music artists including The Smiths, Hans Zimmer, and INXS.
Featherstone says they followed the design approach of Berlin-based firm Studio TK, which created the exhibit’s overall design, supported by the efforts of Technical Director Heiko Schallenberg, Project Managers Seth! Leary and Astrid Lehmann, and Director Christoph Scholz. The design utilizes one fixture per display piece in most cases. “We wanted a very precise gallery effect, which is the gestalt of the entire exhibit,” he says. “It would be easy to just flood the walls with light and have it bounce around. But the intent was to make it feel as though you are stepping into an art gallery, one that could just as easily be displaying Monets or Warhols. I was introduced to the Stingray Mini by our amazing project electrician, David Verkade, and knew right away it was a winner.”
As important, Featherstone stresses, is the Stingray Mini’s low infrared and UV emissions, which he points out are critical for preserving delicate artwork. “We tested several fixtures and looked closely at their specifications, and only the Stingray Mini gave us the ability to execute the look and feel that we wanted to achieve artistically and curatorially, and do so within budget,” he says. “And that last point is important because these fixtures were also intended to become a permanent part of the Comic-Con Museum’s inventory. So, the Stingray Mini helped us reach our goals creatively, executionally, and financially—all three areas that have to work together for museums to succeed today.”
Further information on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Beyond Amazing – The Exhibition at the Comic-Con Museum: www.comic-con.org
Further information from Lightswitch: www.lightswitch.net
Further information from Intelligent Lighting Creations: www.ilc.com
Further information from Semmel Exhibitions: www.semmel-exhibitions.com
The Stingray Mini
The elektraLite Stingray Mini brings a choice of Warm White, Cool White, and Variable White in an incomparable level of intensity for its range. At the heart of the Stingray Mini is a newly designed 20-watt COB LED. The ellipsoidal provides clean, rich, beautiful white light making the Stingray Mini perfect for any show, event, or for displays in a museum or gallery. The built-in accessory clip allows for diffusion and color media to be used. The Stingray Mini’s sophisticated, proprietary diffraction lensing system provides a packed punch of light in a variety of beam spreads. The interchangeable lens tube gives the user 19°, 26°, 36°, or 50° beam spreads. Four independent shutter blades give perfect in-focus cuts to the beam.
A powerful, well‐rounded LED lighting fixture with a rugged all-metal design, the Stingray Mini is a perfect feature fixture, ready to bring rich, bright white light to a wide variety of public spaces. The Stingray Mini is controlled via DMX or manually. The DMX module is mounted to the yoke, but the fixture comes with an extension cable to remotely locate the module. A quick rotating and release of the barrel allows lens and shutter to be easily cleaned. Housing features rotating barrel assembly, pattern holder slot, and four shutter blades for perfect in-focus beam cuts.
Further information from elektraLite: www.myelektralite.com
