A Psychedelic, Interactive Light Show Floods A Medieval Castle In Italy

There”s something about mashing up the old and the new that is thrilling. Seeing something ancient next to something modern is exciting because it makes you think about all the years and all the people that have led you to where you are. (Or maybe that”s just me?) Anyway, no matter your thoughts on the juxtaposition of old and new, this art installation in south eastern Italy is pretty striking.

Thirteenth-century Castel del Monte features an octagonal interior courtyard. When French artist Miguel Chevalier saw it, he knew it was the perfect space for a psychedelic interactive light show called Magic Carpets 2014. The lights, which are projected onto the floor from overhead, react to the movements of visitors, creating an ever-changing “carpet” of colors and shapes. It”s accompanied by music my Jacopo Baboni Schilingi.

The shapes can be fluidly organic…

…or patterns of pixels.

Either way, it”s breathtaking.

The forms range from square pixels to fluid, organic shapes, sometimes both emerging at once. Chevalier sees this blend as symbolic of the meeting of the artificial and natural worlds, the Earthly and the celestial. “Everything comes together, comes apart, and alters shape at top speed,” he says.