Triad, a new public art work by Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen has been completed in Kalasatama Comprehensive School, Helsinki. The work, commisioned by HAM Helsinki Art Museum, is a colourful light installation embedded into the wall of the school cafeteria.

The installation consists of three circles, created with LED strips with regularly changing colours, studying possible corresponds between musical triads and the tricolour combinations. The seven-colour palette, based on the ideas of physicist Sir Isaac Newton, can be seen as similar to the octave in Western music, which includes seven whole tones.

“Many of our works involve randomness, which is often based on natural phenomena, such as the fluctuations in radioactive background radiation. Even if its average stays constant, there may be vast variations within a short period of time. The works have a life of their own within specifically set threshold values for the works’ control systems. What’s fascinating about randomness is that, despite our rational efforts, life is always random in the end,” the artists say.

Photo: HAM / Kirsi Halkola