Seeing the light: Our Beacon to the world

London – To celebrate its tenth anniversary and to mark the completion of its new Elder Street headquarters, The Future Laboratory commissioned young British artist Sam Spenser to create a site-specific artwork called Beacon.

Sited in The Future Laboratory’s undercroft, Beacon is a chrome and glass structure resembling a lost probe or data node in a landscape of sand. A blue light flickers in response to the ones and zeros transmitted by The Future Laboratory’s computer server, reacting dynamically to the activity in the offices above.

‘As a company, we are continually reading the pulse of change and reflecting on it,’ say The Future Laboratory’s co-founders Chris Sanderson and Martin Raymond. ‘In our research we try to decode signs, to pulse-check change and to shine a light into the future. Beacon reminds us of this.’