A unique lighting project in a field of leeks in the Netherlands aims to demonstrate how lighting can bring science and art to enhance and highlight nature.

A special ‘recipe’ using blue and red light improves the growth of the plants and cuts the need for pesticides, while also creating an artwork that highlights the beauty and importance of farming. The 20,000 square metre field is lit by blue and red lasers which can improve the plants’ growth and resilience.
The GROW project is by Daan Roosegaarde which he describes as ‘an homage to the beauty and importance of agriculture’. It is inspired by photobiology light science technologies which have shown that certain recipes of blue, red, and ultraviolet light can enhance plant growth and reduce the use of pesticides by up to 50 percent.

‘Most of the time we hardly notice the huge areas of the Earth which are literally feeding us,’ says Roosegaarde. ‘[The project] can be good for nature but also sends hopeful light to people’.
“GROW is the dreamscape which shows the beauty of light and sustainability. Not as a utopia but as a protopia, improving step by step. ‘It gives a new meaning to the word ‘agri-culture’ by reframing the landscape as a living cultural artwork’. The dancing lights across the huge agricultural field creates a luminous dreamscape which ‘makes the farmer the hero’.
GROW is part of the artist-in-residence program of the Rabobank. Daan Roosegaarde and his team of designers and experts developed GROW over two years, informed by expert knowledge sessions at Studio Roosegaarde, Wageningen University & Research, Springtij Forum, and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

It is the first in a series of dreamscapes by Studio Roosegaarde which show the beauty of combining art and science to create a better world.
Prof. Dr. Wargent, PhD, Chief Science Officer at BioLumic, a world leading expert in plant photobiology, commented: ‘The project GROW is a fascinating project and supported by scientific research which shows specific light recipes can enhance growth and reduce pesticide use up to 50 percent.’

Source: www.luxreview.com