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Dana Major

Dana Major

Chicago, Illinois

Dana Major’s interactive light installations investigate how perception creates reality. Exploring the surprises of worlds beyond what we usually see.

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  • Portfolio
  • About
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Mana Open Studio by Dana Major
  • Mana Open Studio
Glass, Steel, LED's
Silver Seed by Dana Major
  • Silver Seed
Glass, Steel, LED's, Concrete
Purgatorio by Dana Major
  • Purgatorio
Crystal Seeing
CAD Crystal Ball by Dana Major
  • CAD Crystal Ball
Installation
Art Expo | 2022 by Dana Major
  • Art Expo | 2022
Altruistic Esthetics Installation by Dana Major
  • Altruistic Esthetics Installation
Installation
Collective Seeing by Dana Major
  • Collective Seeing
Crystal Seeing
Vernissage EXPO 2019 by Dana Major
  • Vernissage EXPO 2019
Aluminum Mesh, Wire, Glass, LED
Luminosity In the Darkest by Dana Major
  • Luminosity In the Darkest
Installation
Eight Oh by Dana Major
  • Eight Oh
Aluminum Mesh, Wire, Glass, LED
Divining Intuition by Dana Major
  • Divining Intuition
Crystal Seeing
CAD Crystal Ball by Dana Major
  • CAD Crystal Ball
Aluminum Mesh, Wire, Glass, LED
Flag Fence Progressive Community Art Project | Chicago Waldorf School by Dana Major
  • Flag Fence Progressive Community Art Project | ...
Envisage by Dana Major
  • Envisage
Crystal Palace Crystal Caves by Dana Major
  • Crystal Palace Crystal Caves
THAW X by Dana Major
  • THAW X
Crystal Seeing
Visible Music by Dana Major
  • Visible Music
Mountain Who Cares for the Sky by Dana Major
  • Mountain Who Cares for the Sky
Mark Making by Dana Major
  • Mark Making
Installation
Making Puppets by Dana Major
  • Making Puppets
Crystal Ball by Dana Major
  • Crystal Ball
Crystal Seeing
A Surprise In the Process by Dana Major
  • A Surprise In the Process
Crystal Seeing
Gala Crystal Seeing by Dana Major
  • Gala Crystal Seeing
Crystal Seeing
Mana Open House by Dana Major
  • Mana Open House
Untitled by Dana Major
  • Untitled
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My interactive light installations investigate how perception creates reality. 

Studio-made LEDs, repurposed glass, reflection, shadow, and lensing explore the surprise of worlds beyond what we usually see. The lenses of microscopy and astronomy show patterns and processes that, bound up with the inherent limitations of ways of seeing, come to be called reality.

I am interested in the analog aspects of light that were available prior to the Digital Age. Sir Isaac Newton founded light science from candles, sunlight, and crystal prisms, repositioning himself and his experiments as the sun moved throughout the day, to compose his seminal work, Opticks. 

My work brings an opportunity for slow observation of lights we see, but don’t notice, every day. There are no computers, no wifi, no software, no digital programming, no motors, and no projectors involved in my work. The movement of light in my work is analog, directly related to the real space, for example a lens sways because of air movement overhead. I fabricate my own light emitting diodes at the soldering table in order to control color and intensity. LEDs make light by interrupting a low voltage electrical circuit with a diode that glows as it hosts this interruption in the wire. It is not smart technology. When the light leaves the emitter, it goes to me, the human maker, to lens, colorize, and move, and not to a computer that is limited to the parameters of its manufacture. 

This is slow light, at the pace of the human.



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