FROM TUBE TO TECH: HOW DAN FLAVIN'S MINIMALIST 'SITUATIONS' SPARK MY LED GLASS EXPERIMENTS

Kaja Knowers
Aug 7
3 min read

There’s something mildly rebellious and beautifully intimate in Dan Flavin’s fluorescent installations. He wasn’t aiming for grand proclamation, but a quiet takeover: light as sculpture, space as canvas, emotion in simplicity.

Who Was Dan Flavin and Why He Still Glows in Our Minds

Dan Flavin (1933 to 1996) is the poster child of minimalist light art, taking dumb, off the shelf fluorescent tubes and treating them like poetry. He threw abstraction and subjectivity out the window and let light reshape reality. His breakthrough, The Diagonal of Personal Ecstasy (The Diagonal of May 25, 1963), a yellow tube slicing across wall and floor, dedicated to Brâncuși, ushered in his lifelong obsession with light as form, space, and emotional architecture.

The Diagonal of Personal Ecstasy by Dan Flavin

From there, he collaborated with the humdrum: retail bought tubes in a tight palette (reds, blues, greens, pinks, yellow, ultraviolet, whites), arranged to evoke stillness and stir your senses.

Signature “Situations” and Iconic Works

Flavin famously sidestepped studio production in favour of “situations”, site specific installations that interact with architecture. A few shining examples:

Icons Series (1961 to 62): Early, boxy experiments fusing wood, gesso, and fluorescent or incandescent bulbs. Personal and raw. Titles like Icon IV (the pure land), dedicated to his brother, hint at the emotional stakes.

Monuments for V. Tatlin (late 60s): Crisp, minimal, architectural light structures referencing Tatlin’s tower with cold white or coloured tubes, tall and commanding.

**Monuments for V. Tatlin by Dan Flavin**

Late career mega installations (1990s): Vibrant corner spanning works such as Untitled (to Tracy, to celebrate the love of a lifetime), a sweeping embrace of colour and scale. And the cathedral size project in Santa Maria Annunciata, Milan, light draping sacred space itself.

*to Tracy, to celebrate the love of a lifetime by Dan Flavin*

Dan Flavin Art Institute (Dia Bridgehampton, 1983): A repurposed firehouse turned gallery where nine fluorescent “situations” live in ambient harmony.

Explore more works: List of Dan Flavin light sculptures

The Blurred Line Between Flavin and My LED Prototype

Here’s where cheeky meets cerebral

Flavin treated fluorescent tubes like invisible architects, public domain objects recast as emotional instruments. And now, I’m borrowing that baton, but with a twist. My prototype? LED addressable lights dancing inside glass, alive in colour, responsive, playful.

My LED light prototype

Flavin’s legacy: quiet rebellion, sacred simplicity, raw emotional projection

My riff: programmable LEDs that breathe, pulse, and flirt with audience presence and space

So instead of static corners, light becomes actor. Instead of rigid geometry, light evolves. Instead of reverent silence, light giggles, shifts, pulses.

Why This Matters and Why You Should Care

Transformation: Flavin turned fluorescent tubes into ascetic altars. I want that same sense of becoming, but with a nudge of cheek and surprise
Vulnerability: Flavin’s dedications aren’t sterile. They’re intimate, personal, and affectionate. My LEDs might hide secrets, respond to touch, or echo a pulse, vulnerable, not precious
Playfulness: Flavin at his most playful was still minimalist ballet. My glass LED hybrid feels like tech infused whimsy dancing with light
Material Integrity: Flavin respected his tubes. I respect mine. But I ask, “What if they could speak, move, adapt?”

Closing Glow

So here’s the invitation: stand in a corner where light is your only companion. That’s Flavin’s world. Now imagine that world humming back, warm, playful, alive, that’s mine. Flavin laid down the minimalist beat. I’m remixing it with LEDs, glass, and a wink.