As far as I can tell from my research, this show is the first time super bright, white LED's (light emitting diodes) have been used exclusively to light an art gallery show. LED's are more familiar to us as those small, red and green indicator light on consumer electronics. White LED's are a more recent discovery and are said to be color corrected for 6500 degrees Kelvin which is very close to daylight. I haven't counted precisely, but believe that I have over 200 white LED's in fixtures, over 50 red LED's as part of the installation, 20 Yellow LED's in the entrance and a few green LED's as safety markers.
Due to the low light and especially the low ambient light in the show, an infrared security system was also developed by the artist. The 6 IR LED's on the camera were augmented by 72 more on 2 IR illuminator circuit boards.
The large name at the rear of the gallery is lighted using a single, 48" ultraviolet fluorescent tube. The lighter part of the name is 1/2" styrofoam insulation sheet masked with black paper. Intended to be subtle for the viewer, in installation photo it reads as a very luxuriant blue-violet.
LED's are current rather than voltage devices. Series, current
limiting resistors are important to keep currents in the working
range for each LED. Ohms law is used to determine resistor values
for any DC voltage. For example, I chose to use a 5 volt DC
switching power supply and the white LED's working current range is near
0.02 Amps. I read that keeping current slightly lower than the listed
value would insure long life. I also wanted to buy common resistor values
so here is how I came up with resistor values using Ohms law:
5.0 supply voltage minus LED voltage drop (5.0 - 3.6) = 1.4V
E/I X R = 1.4/0.09I = 90 Ohms
And luckily I found resistor networks at 90 Ohms!
One 5 Volt power supply is more than enough for my 250 or so LED's. I ran a buss of number 16-22 wire throughout the gallery and I am sure some runs are over 100 feet long. I never experienced the LED's dim due to Voltage drop.
