Lightwaves2016

About

This season, Quays Culture will host the UK’s biggest digital light festival, at Salford Quays and MediaCityUK. The annual festival, Lightwaves 2016 will run from Friday 9 December until Sunday 18 December and will feature a collection of outdoor light exhibitions. #Lightwaves2016

Featuring new and exclusively commissioned digital art displays alongside emerging talent, light workshops, and legendary illuminations - from local, national, and international artists. Lightwaves 2016 will bring light to those dark winter nights, as FREE light experiences span across The Quays, from the Plaza between The Lowry and the Lowry Outlet, to MediaCityUK’s Piazza, and even in the River Irwell. 

A brand new, large-scale commission, specifically for Quays Culture, is Heart Beat, the brainchild of artists and installation specialists, GNI Project.  A co-commission with Blackpool Illuminations and Quartier de Spectaculars, Montreal, Heart Beat is part of the GNI’s ‘Light Love Collection;’ a series of art installations using mixed lighting media to create the symbol of a heart – universally accepted the world over, as a sign of passion and love. From one angle Heart Beat is an animated 3D heartbeat pulsing through the sculpture. From another angle, the lights join to form a heart. For the heart to appear spectators are encouraged to make a connection of love, or friendship, by joining hands in front of the sculpture; human touch reveals the heart. Once the connection is lost the heart is broken into fragments again.

A first-time showcase for Salford Quays and MediaCityUK, Voyage is pre-existing artwork, which has been shown globally. Created by Aether & Hemera – a multi-disciplinary art and design studio, producing contemporary lighting art and interaction design - Voyage features six lines of 33 origami boats, occupying a space of 630m2 - the 198 boats were designed to engage with the community and transform the waterfront. The fleet composes an organic matrix of interactive lights, which change colour when passers by interact with it on their mobile phones. The public can transform the pattern and colour of the paper boats by connecting their mobile device to Voyage Wi-Fi network and opening their browser to access Voyage.co.uk; users will be given a choice of artworks to interact with, such as a rainbow or the night sky – choosing an artwork option will change the colour of the boats in the water.

2016 will see Quays Culture collaborate with lighting legends of the North, Blackpool Illuminations. At 10km long and using over one million bulbs the Blackpool Illuminations are an awesome spectacle, which has been running since 1912. Quays Culture will be showcasing items from Blackpool’s light collection, which reflect the location of MediaCityUK, home to the BBC, including Dr.Who Daleks, Phone Boxes, and Spacemen.

An emerging talent programme, SHINE, in partnership with Leeds Light Night, sees the creation of three new commissions, from three up-and-coming artists. Footsteps, by Sam Sebbage, consists of 80 illuminated footsteps walking a path. Each footstep is created from artificial grass and embedded with lights; representing the path each of us walks. Edyta Masior is the artist behind Laiki#3 – fluorescent fishing lines are suspended within a structure and fitted with contact microphones. This interactive installation creates air vibrations, when the strings are plucked, creating sound, like that of a harp. Fire Flies, a creation from Fixed Grinn Collective, is a series of floating illuminations, which interact with their surroundings as they ‘fly’ amongst those that visit them. Consisting of hundreds of illuminated LED spheres that seamlessly float, the installation interacts with the public as its fire-like embers swirl; forming a connection, which is organic, yet synthesised, mechanic, yet fluid.

As part of Quays Culture’s Northern Artist Film Competition, Chris Paul Daniels and Sam Meech won the new commission category. Their commission, One Square Mile, co-commissioned with University of Salford, will employ a range of cinematic techniques to explore environments, architecture and communities within one square mile of Salford Quays and MediaCityUK - the Northern broadcasting beacon from which narratives are edited and distributed. The film will celebrate the diversity of people within the area, and how they interact within it.

Light Graffiti Workshop, by Finnish artist, Tekla Inari, is a creative session, for all ages in small groups or solo, to try painting with immaterial light graffiti. Allowing Lightwaves 2016 visitors to make their own memorable light experience, this interactive workshop captures a photograph of their light graffiti, in digital form, following their experience. This is available for a limited time only during the Light Festival, from Friday 9 December – Sunday 11 December at 12pm-5pm and 6pm-8pm.

Quays Culture delivers outdoor arts and cultural events combining the latest in digital technology with the vision of world-class artists throughout the year. Its work ranges from the intimate to the monumental, acting as a series of interventions and invitations to the public realm. Lightwaves 2016 will run daily from 12pm – 10.30pm.

Find out more by visiting:
www.quaysculture.com
facebook.com/QuaysCulture

Twitter @QuaysCulture

#Lightwaves2016

ENDS

Press Contacts:

For further information, images and interviews please contact Mason Williams Communications:

Tel: 0845 0941 007

Joanne Greer | M: 07801 320 388  |* joanne@mason-williams.com

Sarah Schofield | M: 07850 320 770 |* sarah.schofield@mason-williams.com

Quays Culture Partners

Quays Culture was brought together by The Quays Partnership to animate the public space at The Quays and provide visitors with an artistic and cultural offer. A full list of partners can be found at http://quaysculture.com/meet-the-team/partnership/

LIGHTWAVES 2016 is made possible by funding from Arts Council England and AGMA, and support from The Quays, The Lowry, Peel | MediaCityUK and Salford City Council.

Quays Culture is a member of Lighting Up the North, a network of light festivals taking place in seven cities across the North of England.