photography : Frank Alexander Rummele, Mike Schellenberger, Markus Tretter, Antonius Quodt

Antonius Quodt discovered his interest in lighting at the age of sixteen while working for a school theatre project to develop the lighting concept. The technical equipment of the first project involved a piece of wood with eight standard household dimmers and twenty 60-watt clamp-on lights from the hardware store.

Fast forward to twenty years later and Antonius Quodt and his firm LightLife Gesellschaft fur audiovisuelle Erlebnisse GmbH is now one of the best-known lighting design companies in all of Germany. After finishing his secondary education it was clear to him that a career in stage technology was his job of choice, although in the '80s this occupation was not in existence. As a result he studied radio and television technology and became experienced in electronics and electrical technology. After completing his apprenticeship he was required to fulfil his military service for one and a half years but in his spare time he worked as a stage hand on various stage productions.

One of his more memorable projects involved installing the PA's at the German rock and roll festival 'Rock an Ring' in 1986. While trying to dismantle the relay tower with a malfunctioning forklift he decided never to touch a speaker again. He definitely wanted to trade in his roadie life for that of a lighting designer.

After completing his military service he worked as a freelancer at the Cologne based firm Showtec GmbH. During his time there he was able to learn the basics of lighting technology and even received training to become a Vari-Lite operator. At this point he was also developing the first lighting concepts for small concert productions.

In the summer of 1992 he stood in for the lighting designer of the Chinese National Circus which was on tour in Austria. What started out as ten days evolved into two years after realising how much this type of work pleased him. He was also able to establish contact with Andre Heller, a well-known multi media artist who was the artistic director of the Chinese National Circus.

His first popular light conception followed with the 1993 tour of the Chinese National Circus. Other tours and concert productions soon followed. His first contact with architectural lighting was in 1995 with the 'Swarovski Crystal World' in Wattens, Tyrol. This was the first project involving architectural lighting and the differences to stage work immediately became apparent. Up to this point it was never one of his concerns how much energy was used or how long the light sources lasted. Even bringing to life the mouth-blown neon objects of the New York artist Paul Seide were part of his new assignments. The new challenges proved positive for his development and he was soon interested in architectural lighting design. He was convinced that the endurance of the architecture in comparison to that of the stage was significant. After experiencing back problems due to a slipped disk, the new direction his career was taking was in jeopardy.

Without enough projects to work on he was soon snapped up by the firms Vari-Lite and Showtec to be their project manager for which he was thankful. It was during this partnership that Vari-Lite and Showtec decided the time was right to open a new firm responsible for the supply of electrical equipment within Germany.

In 1996 the firm LightLife GmbH was formed with Antonius Quodt as director. The rising dollar rates and the less than positive financial market in Germany proved that the development of lighting concepts was more profitable than the selling of electrical equipment.

Throughout this period LightLife was responsible for various projects including the German tour of the Argentinean tenor Jose Cura and the lighting concept for the television tower in Siemianowice, Poland. Soon after LightLife developed concepts for the RWE-Meteorite Park in Essen - the 'Wunderkammer', utilising nearly 40 km of fibre optic cabling and the Museum in Bregenz, Austria for the American neon artist Keith Sonnier. The project involved the use of 600 digitally controllable fluorescent lamps behind the glass facade.

Due to the fact that the initial business plan of LightLife differed to its development, the firm was able to separate from its founding benefactors and go out on its own. Jan Julius Miebach who had previously worked as a freelancer for the company took over as the financial officer.

Lightlife has developed into a fully-fledged planning office with six full-time employees and eight freelancers. Projects are now either planned or, depending on the client, completely installed and programmed. Next to lighting the firm is also involved with acoustics, video and control technology. The control technology has evolved into an independent company, which specialises in architectural applications with electrical engineers Dirk Beiner and Philipp van Beeck developing the first prototype of the e:cue media engine.

The free software available on the firm's website (www.ecue.tv) allows one not only to program for architectural applications but, because of its matrix controller, it is adaptable for many functions in stage lighting. Many international acts including 'The Rasmus', German artists 'Die Arzte' or 'Rosenstolz' depend upon e:cue products for their stage shows. When the design involves the projection of text or graphics using a matrix of a couple of hundred PAR spotlights then the products from e:cue are the ones of choice for many professionals. The comfortable user interface significantly simplifies the programming of the lighting sequences.

LightLife is also active in product design. The wall light 'DIVA D' from Antonius Quodt functions without the use of its own light source. It was voted as the 'Light of the Year 2003' in Germany and Quodt will be presented with the award at Light+Building in Frankfurt. The decisive aspect in choosing products at LightLife involves a measurement of the fun factor, which leads to projects which can be deemed as financial disasters.

With the product 'Sitting Bulb', a sofa with over 2000 lamps and 600 DMX channels, the profit is not the key factor. The Blue Night in Nurnberg (see mondo*arc 14) is another of these types of products. Although the festival has over 130,000 visitors its 1,200 blue pixels have more of an entertainment value than that of a financial one.