Jonas Johansson is an anywhere-based artist, educator, and designer from Glommen, Halland. His work explores light and technology through play, community, and (un)human intervention.
Since 2024 Jonas plans courses for Svenska Tecknare, taught Visual Communication at Beckmans (2017–2025), served as Industry Leader at Hyper Island (2014–2022), and have lectured at Aalto University, Konstfack, School of Machines, Berghs, Nyckelviken, Futuregames, to name a few.
Jonas's professional experience includes KRAM/WEISSHAAR (SE/DE), FIELD (UK) and Moment Factory (CA). He interned at W+K Tokyo (JP) and UltraSuperNew (JP).
Under the moniker Scenic Route, he has performed for artists such as La Fleur, Kornel Kovacs, Gesafellstein, Yuksek and all time idol, The Field.
Today, Jonas runs the artist residency Visualia, produces the fulldome film festival Dome Dreaming, co-creates events with PLX, collaborates with the lighting collective Svartljus, and co-founded Nordic Audiovisual Artists. He shares a studio in Stockholm with SMASH and Rose Hallgren.
Svartljus
A light art collective I co-founded, building modular installations for forests, festivals, and public spaces.
Svartljus started in 2017 at Stugan, a co-created makerspace in Sickla, Stockholm. I connected with Olle Bjerkås and Markus Persson and we began experimenting with light as a spatial medium. We kicked things off with a light tunnel for Spotify: two rows of LED columns controlled in real time, serving as both entrance and exit at their Stockholm HQ. In 2018, Per-Olov Jernberg joined, bringing hardware and software skills that let us create more reactive systems. That year we exhibited at Sónar Reykjavík and ran a workshop on our techniques.
Through hackathons at Reaktorhallen and projects across the Nordics, we developed Dendrolux, a modular light sculpture built for trees, powered by solar and controlled in real time. Inspired by the Wood Wide Web, the underground networks through which trees communicate, Dendrolux wraps trees in bespoke light rings with 300 RGB dual-side pixels and custom silicone diffusion, transforming them into lampposts for the forest. The installation is fully solar powered and interactive, responding to people nearby.
Since its debut at Into the Woods in Unnaryd in 2020, Dendrolux has been shown at Copenhagen Light Festival (2021, 2022), PLX Tjärö (2022), Norra Bantorget in Stockholm (2024), and Tjolöholms Slott in Halland (2024), where the light rings wrapped trees in the castle park, turning the grounds into an interactive light walk.
We also built Semiosphere, a geodesic sphere of light panels shown at Urban Burn in 2018, and Autolux, a flexible LED tube sculpture.
The core group is now seven: myself, Olle Bjerkås, Per-Olov Jernberg, Servando Barreiro, Rose Hallgren, Elias Aabjerg, and Lior Nønne Malue Hansen, each bringing skills from metal fabrication and architecture to sound design and creative coding. We have also run an internship programme with students from Beckmans and Hyper Island.
