SPiTS

Over 30 years ago, the spire of the tower of the Sacrament Church in Tilburg was removed. It was in too bad a condition. Years later, the building lost its function as a church and plans were made for a new use. In 2015, it was decided to largely demolish the church in favor of housing development but the steeple, albeit without its spire, remained. Recently, a new chapter was added to the biography of this tower: it received a glass spire containing a work of light art by Sigrid Calon. An unusual commission, Esther Didden thought, and she contacted Calon. 

"Without involved local residents, this work of light would not have been there," says Sigrid Calon, "thanks to their commitment and years of endurance, the tower now has a spire as well as a work of art." How so? The neighborhood rebelled years ago when demolition plans threatened. After all, the Sacrament Church is both architecturally and historically a valuable building on one of Tilburg's main traffic routes.Reallocation seemed a better option to the neighborhood and the Spits Armhoefse Akkers Foundation, named after the neighborhood in which it all takes place, was established. The foundation launched a competition to give the tower a new "crown. Eighty entries came in with a variety of ideas for a new spire. One of the plans was quickly favored by both board and residents: the glass spire by architect Jos ten Brink within which a work of light art was to be realized. A separate commission had to be issued for the work of light art. And so it happened. A classical spire was realized both in form and height but not in material. The silhouette of the church tower was correct again, the tower had become a landmark. Then followed step two, a work of art.

Calon had witnessed all the events of the spireless tower up close, as she lived on the same street. She had deliberately ignored the call to submit plans for the spire; she felt she was literally too close to it. Calon moved to another street and no longer thought about rush hour. Until she was approached by Pieter Siebers, highly involved local resident and foundation board member. He approached her about the light artwork in the glass spire and wanted to know if she was interested in it. She had, she felt connected to the neighborhood and because of her move she felt she had the right distance to dedicate herself wholeheartedly to making a good work of art. She soon realized that the glass spire presented its own specific technical challenges. The tapering spire, the height and the fact that the work had to be visible from four sides made the task interesting but also complex. At an early stage, she involved Coen Klösters of NAP Labs. She had the ideas, he was able to realize it technically.

As in her previous work, Calon has used a set of ground rules and guidelines. SPiTS consists of seven basic graphic elements: lines, rectangles, circles, polygons and combinations thereof. Each day of the week has its own element. In addition, the light work keeps pace with the principle of the clock: the seven elements are variable and form over the course of an hour. This process of change is slow and is perceptible only if you, as a passer-by, keep looking longer. "Each form has a composition like a slow dance, the form moves on time and therefore very slowly." explains Calon. Encoding the forms and compositions was a technically complex matter, consider that four sides of the spire require four beamers, the height of the spire is fifteen meters, and the light must be able to cover eight meters to be properly visible.

Klösters and his team wrote the software that enabled projection of the elements into the spire. The images are projected from the inside onto the tilted sides of the spire via a beamer with a so-called fisheye lens. In Klösters' application, Calon had to manually enter and determine all the changing elements during all hours of the week, and the computer then converted this to projection. A very labor-intensive process. For each day and shape, Calon created seven different variations. Each quarter gave them their own color scheme, allowing for more variety. In collaboration with Marketing Tilburg, the light work gets adjusted five times a year, on special days Calon adjusts the color. That can be Pink Monday, but also Christmas or Sugar Festival, or another memorable moment. Like recently the mayor's farewell, when the work was colored blue and yellow, the colors of Tilburg's flag.