Simon Says Artifice

While New York has Olafur Eliasson’s towering artificial waterfalls, the residents of Gdansk, Poland’s principal seaport, have an aluminum flying saucer courtesy of artist Peter Coffin and the lighting designers at the Cinimod Studio.

We think it’s a wonderfully crafty play on paranoia. Built to surprise the spectators at the Gdansk Festival of Stars, the intricately designed UFO glides like an alien spaceship (via a Mi2 helicopter some 160 ft. above) and is adorned with 3000 neon-bright, individually controllable Color Kinetics LED nodes. It’s reminiscent of Simon (above).

There is talk of the dazzling UFO visiting the US. We just hope it doesn’t cause any Orson Welles-scale hysterics or Stephenville speculation.