Milan 2011: visitors to an installation by London designer Paul Cocksedge at the Milan showroom of lighting brand Flos could view an animation of a BMW 6 Series car only by putting their heads inside a plastic lamp shade.

Called Sestosenso, the installation featured conical lamp shades suspended in a white-walled room.

Through the shades visitors can view a movie of the new BMW 6 Series projected on the wall that is invisible to others in the room.

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Photos are by Mark Cocksedge.

The following information is from the designer:

BMW and FLOS present: SESTOSENSO, a luminary apparition by Paul Cocksedge:

Munich/Milan. Sharing a passion for design, research, experimentation, aesthetic purity and technological innovation, BMW and FLOS have joined forces at Salone del Mobile 2011 to create, thanks to Paul Cocksedge’s talent, SESTOSENSO, a celebration of light. The installation can be visited in the FLOS Professional Space in Corso Monforte 15 from 12th to 17th April.

Inspired by the quality and beauty of light and the astonishing new BMW 6 Series, the first BMW with Full-LED headlights, Paul Cocksedge has erected a seamless, curving, white wall extension to the Flos showroom and low-hanging red and white conical lamps. As with the BMW headlights, the source of light remains hidden, only the light itself is guided through a transparent body, rendering the light source invisible and forever changing its qualities. The resultant, intensely soft light caresses, seduces all around.

Stepping inside one of the impressive SESTOSENSO red lights, a video of the BMW 6 Series Coupe reveals itself on the vast white wall. As if accessing a sixth sense, there is a hint of movement in the corner of the eye. Through the light we see the car: through the car, we understand the light.

The playful sculptural pieces softly illuminate, stimulate and allow contemplation. Cocksedge gives us elegant, 'functional brilliance'. A hand made Limited Edition of 66 SESTOSENSO light sculptures, designed by Paul Cocksedge Studio for Flos, is released for this special event, to celebrate the perfect fusion of light, design and technology.

The new BMW 6 Series Coupe presents itself as a sport car for connoisseurs who enjoy luxury and appreciate trailblazing technology. The adaptive Full-LED headlamps of the new BMW 6 Series Coupe are an innovation in the field of lighting technology. This innovative technique generates bright white light to assure an especially intensive and uniform illumination of the roadway.

This technique, which is being serially deployed for the first time in the BMW 6 Series Coupe, facilitates an impressive restaging of BMW design icons such as the round headlamps and the taillights.