Gigglebit: Bioluminescence, a hell of a way to look at forest life

6 Feb 2015

Gigglebit is Siliconrepublic’s daily dose of the funny and fantastic in science and tech, to help start your day on a lighter note.

Today we look at bioluminescence, one of nature’s many ways to light up our world, in a slightly different environment.

Seemingly inspired by the bioluminescence on show in so many deep-sea documentaries – with the likes of the wonderfully named Clusterwink snail, Abraliopsis squid, Vampire squid, Colonial jelly lighting up the oceans – artists Freidrich van Schoor and Tarek Mawad investigated what that would be like in forest life.

Spider webs sparkle and glitter, fauna pulses and mushrooms twinkle on the bark of dead trees. It’s best to view this in full screen with the sound on.

The duo spent six weeks in the woods in Pirmasens, Germany, creating everything you see here live, without the need for any post-production special effects. More information can be found at Bioluminescent Forest.

And for those of you who love when a magician reveals his tricks, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how the video was created.

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com