JU students light up the Nobel Prize Museum

Eleven students from the Lighting Design and Lighting Technology programme at the School of Engineering (JTH), Jönköping University (JU), illuminate the courtyard of the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm during the light festival Nobel Week Lights on 2-10 December.

“It is great fun and a great opportunity for us to show what we have learned during our education. We have put a lot of time and effort into creating something unique that offer visitors an experience out of the ordinary, says Rebecka Azizova, one of the students.

Nobel Week Lights invites international and local artists, designers and students who create light artworks inspired by the Nobel Prize and Nobel laureates. The festival was held for the first time in 2020 when the Nobel Festival was canceled due to the pandemic and has now become an annual feature during Nobel Week.

Collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music

This year, 17 light exhibitions are shown at places and buildings around Stockholm, such as Sergels Torg, Stadshuset and Storkyrkan. The JTH students, who are in the final year of their studies, interpret the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Yoshinori Ohsumi, for his research on autophagy in yeast. The exhibition is made in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Music, which contributes sound. Autophagy means "self-eating" and is a process where cells actively break down and recycle components of themselves for new purposes.

“We have started from the theme of mushrooms and developed several constructions that revolve around it. We have taken advantage of the site's design and, among other things, worked with mycelium which is the vegetative part of mushrooms that usually grows underground and can be seen in one of our installations,” says Rebecka Azizova.

“Busy, fun and honorable”

Johan Röklander and Mikael Pettersson, teachers in the Lighting Design and Lighting Technology programme at JTH, have been in Stockholm and supervised the students in their work with the exhibition.

“It is busy, but fun and honourable that we get to be here again this year. This is a good opportunity for real life practice, in for example, programming lighting control and installation safety. It’s fun for the students to be able to create something for their future CVs and show what they've done in practical terms,” says Johan Röklander.

He finds it exciting to make an artistic interpretation of a scientific prize, but at the same time points out that the exhibitions are for the public and that they hope to spread both joy and curiosity with their contribution.

“It is a huge energy boost to show something from 200,000 visitors and many comment and share pictures about our exhibition on social media. It is good advertising for both the School of Engineering, the students themselves and our education. We also build closer contact with many companies that lend equipment, provide knowledge or enter as sponsors for the exhibition,” says Johan Röklander.