"The laser would kick on right at sunset, as a subtle reminder of Florida’s famous “flash of green,” the natural phenomenon that occurs at the moment the sun “sinks” into the Gulf." Glenn Anderson
Featured in the St. Pete Catalyst, January 2022
VINTAGE ST. PETE: The Pier and The Laser, Bill DeYoung, St. Pete Catalyst, January 21, 2022
Glenn Anderson, former Director of the St. Petersburg Arts Commission, discusses Rockne Krebs’ public art installation, The Laser and Starboard (Home on the Range, Part VI), 1975 in 2022.
* It's easier to read with the .pdf link below.
| 2022_glenn_anderson_transcript_the_laser_1975.pdf |
"And there were mirrors up there, too. So the diffraction grating by that time would have broken up that green beam into yellow, purple, and blue, as well as the green, as individual beams move through to yellow, purple and blue." Glenn Anderson, February 5, 2022
Rockne Krebs, 1975, St. Petersburg, FL. during the the installation of his laser sculpture on The Pier. Photo by Bill Tyjewski. Krebs watches as a 1,000-pound steel laser table is lifted through the window.
"So that scientific table that had the laser and the beam mover and all that stuff on it, actually, he put a lace tablecloth on it first, so you can see the lace tablecloth edges from those pictures that you have. He had hand picked that someplace. It was somebody's family’s tablecloth, probably handed down in generations, ended up in a thrift shop, and he included that. And there were some other objects. I think there is a cup and saucer, and there was a plate, ah, yes, there was. He had actually set a place setting on the table, all of this being tongue in cheek, it was a laser table that he had made into a dining table. The items in that place setting were also things that people had brought down from up north someplace, and it had now passed into a thrift shop. And anyway, yeah, he really had a nicer sense of the community than most people live here, I'll tell you that. "
Glenn Anderson, February 5, 2022
Rockne Krebs, 1975, by Bill Tyjewski, St. Petersburg, FL. during the the installation of Krebs’s laser sculpture on The Pier. Newspaper -1,000-pound laser table that Glenn Anderson, Director St. Petersburg Arts Commission, mentions in his letter #sciart #lasers #lightart #pioneer pic.twitter.com/KvP29VgcMg
— Rockne Krebs, Artist (@RockneKrebsArt) March 4, 2018
Press Photo by Weaver Tripp, St. Petersburg Times, 1976.
Artist Rockne Krebs and his laser sculpture are combined in a double-exposure at The St. Petersburg Pier. Krebs is leaning over his Plexiglas art installation piece, Starboard, Home on the Range, Part VI, he built to house the laser. “Krebs is setting prism timers and working on the laser that will project the intricate beams from off The Pier’s third floor…a malfunction that sent St. Petersburg’s new laser sculpture awry Tuesday night…a handful of thrill-seekers found out about it, started fooling with it… Here’s what happened with the $45,000 art creation by Krebs that, when on target, sends beams of bright lights shooting across the city’s waterfront from The Pier. A device called a beam mover, which moves the beam from The Pier to a reflecting mirror on the south side of the approach to The Pier, got a little rambunctious. It moved the beam a little too far in one direction, allowing part of the beam to miss the mirror and shoot across the seawall near the Senior Citizens Center.” Christopher Cubbison,
St. Petersburg Times, Sculpture: Laser Beam, April 3, 1976.
Artist Rockne Krebs and his laser sculpture are combined in a double-exposure at The St. Petersburg Pier. Krebs is leaning over his Plexiglas art installation piece, Starboard, Home on the Range, Part VI, he built to house the laser. “Krebs is setting prism timers and working on the laser that will project the intricate beams from off The Pier’s third floor…a malfunction that sent St. Petersburg’s new laser sculpture awry Tuesday night…a handful of thrill-seekers found out about it, started fooling with it… Here’s what happened with the $45,000 art creation by Krebs that, when on target, sends beams of bright lights shooting across the city’s waterfront from The Pier. A device called a beam mover, which moves the beam from The Pier to a reflecting mirror on the south side of the approach to The Pier, got a little rambunctious. It moved the beam a little too far in one direction, allowing part of the beam to miss the mirror and shoot across the seawall near the Senior Citizens Center.” Christopher Cubbison,
St. Petersburg Times, Sculpture: Laser Beam, April 3, 1976.
"One of the things that was also wonderful is that when this piece was working, when the laser was on, that whole Plexiglas box was just kind of glowed. It was eerie and mysterious to have this glowing Plexiglas star down at one end with beams, green beams shooting out in front of it. It was mesmerizing." Glenn Anderson, February 5, 2022
The Laser and Starboard, Home on the Range, Part VI, Rockne Krebs, 1975, St. Petersburg, FL.
— Rockne Krebs, Artist (@RockneKrebsArt) January 30, 2022
Commissioned by the St. Petersburg Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Photograph by Rockne Krebs, he drew on the slide in green ink. pic.twitter.com/gsL4ujoPQP
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