![Bethanien art centre](http://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/business/sites/uwindsor.ca.dailynews/files/styles/full/public/450_bethanien-simul.jpg?itok=i1Buh1j6)
Lighting a landmark can be nerve-wracking work, says Sigi Torinus.
Professor of integrated media in the School of Creative Arts, she is in Berlin this week for the Festival of Lights, which will see the city’s landmarks, monuments, buildings and places turned into stages for light installations by artists from around the world.
“The whole city will be lit up,” Torinus enthuses.
She and her partner Andrea Sunder-Plassmann will project their multimedia installation Browsing Beauty on the Bethanien art centre in Kreuzberg, a borough at the heart of the German capital.
“It is interesting to deal with the façade of the building as a canvas,” Torinus says. “You have to contend with other sources of light, people coming and going, and the limitations of your projection equipment.”
She anticipates changing the images to suit the shifting circumstances, and has arranged for back-up projectors.
“There is no rehearsal,” she explains. “It is a very live kind of activity. You just have one shot, so everything has to work.”
In Browsing Beauty, the artists explore the ephemeral and random nature of beauty as well as its roots in culture.
“For this show, we want to work with organic images to turn the city into a wild habitat,” says Torinus. “The topic is urban jungle.”
The next exhibit of Browsing Beauty will open January 16, 2015, at the KUBE art museum in Ålesund, Norway. Composer Brent Lee, Torinus’ colleague in the School of Creative Arts, will collaborate with a sound piece for the show and an interactive performance.