New Breed of Light Festival Raises Awareness with LED Lights

via New York TimesAs a response to the growing popularity of light festivals, artist and lighting director Mary-Ann Kyriakou founded Smart Light Sydney last year. What set this light festival apart is that, while most others focus on light as an art medium, this one placed emphasis on sustainability. Kyriakou is currently working on a similar low-energy light festival in Singapore, called I Light Marina Bay. The event will run from October 15th to November 7th. Installations include artworks that employ solar power, hand cranks, and, of course LED lighting in all shapes and sizes.

Featured artist Warren Langley says, “I believe it is important to show that spectacular lighting effects do not necessarily require vast amounts of electric power, a commodity which we must learn to monitor for ecological and sustainability reasons.” His piece titled “Singapore Flora” is composed of a steel vase, out of which emerge LED light cables forming flower shapes. “Each ‘petal’ in the flowers runs on one watt only, while the spiral shapes in the sculpture run on around four to five watts per meter. This is an extraordinarily small amount of power for such a dramatic lighting effect.”

LED lighting is becoming practically synonymous with sustainable lighting, so it follows that LEDs and awareness-raising light festivals go together like cheese and macaroni. This is a fantastic new direction for global light festivals. I’d like to wish all the I Light Marina Bay collaborators a successful show!