Light and sound have always gone together.
This year’s Vivid festival in Sydney has combine audio with its iconic light show in several events during the one month Sydney winter light festival.
Vivid Sydney, the largest festival of light, music and ideas in the Southern Hemisphere, is celebrating its eleventh anniversary in 2019.
Previewing the festival this week, NSW Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres said:
The festival brings an “extraordinary injection into the visitor economy of NSW,” generating over $170 million of investment and attracting 2.2 million people to the city in winter.
After a sold-out event at Vivid Sydney 2018, the Audiocraft Podcast Festival returns for its fourth year to celebrate this highly influential audio art form. Audiocraft showcases the most creative and interesting audio storytellers in the world right now.
Opening Night, Friday 31 May brings audiences together for a live audio experience. Saturday 1 June at AFTRS is all about upskilling, and the Sunday 2 June sessions branch out to The Calyx at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens for practical workshops and to experience the magic of crafted audio storytelling.
In another audio related session on 8 June, Internationally published children’s author Allison Tait and national director of the Australian Writers’ Centre Valerie Khoo host the top-rating podcast So You Want To Be a Writer, will expand their dialogue into a panel discussion with audience participation to help aspiring writers determine the exact steps they need to take to get into their chosen writing field.
The light installations for this year’s Vivid Sydney festival were launched this week in a series of preview events around Sydney Harbour. Along the harbour’s edge, the image of a Ballerina (pictured above) conjures the desire of young artists to reach the infinite through their artistry. The work uses a lighting sequence played across 20 silhouettes to represent the hypnotic cycle of a ballet, repeating in sync with its soundtrack by Davide Lamastra. Stroboscopic effects call to mind a succession of shots from some sort of photographic
Throughout the historic Rocks, iconic buildings will be transformed through colourful vision and patterns, alleyways will be lit by glowing clouds and ballerinas will dance through the night sky. Vivid Sydney Creative Director Ignatius Jones said: “The Rocks will be buzzing as the precinct bursts into brilliant colour, with bright lights and interactive installations that inspire us to explore our world and the universe beyond, and connect with others in the most beautiful ways imaginable.”
Celebrating the UN International Year of Indigenous Languages, the southern pylon of Sydney Harbour Bridge is set to come to life with Eora: Broken Spear curated by Rhoda Roberts with projection design by The Electric Canvas.
The work reminds viewers “to reflect, to call country, to read country and listen to country.”
Eora was created with input from the Art Gallery of NSW, the Australian Museum and the State Library. The story of Eora: Broken Spear is as such – Around First Contact, when the men carried their spears for the seasonal time to fish from the rocks. Some young men raised their spears in battle against the invaders, but our men of high degree stepped forward, with a different greeting for the visitors. Our knowledge keeper carried his spear but the tip was broken; the sign of peace and respect.
