The city of Baltimore, located in the state of Maryland, will present the first large-scale international light festival in the United States from 28 March until 3 April 2016, welcoming international artists from around the globe, including UK art and architect collective, Aether and Hemera.
Light City will transform Baltimore with world-class light displays, cutting-edge sculptures, video projections on buildings and interactive technologies to create once-in-a-lifetime experiences for families, residents and visitors.
The festival is a celebration of Baltimore’s creative, cutting-edge, multi-channel talent and music will also be a major attraction. Light City will feature uniquely curated live shows that will invite the world to experience Baltimore, one of America’s hottest music scenes. For a full schedule of musical performances, visit www.lightcity.org/music
Aether and Hemera is a multi-disciplinary art and design studio based in Newcastle upon Tyne, which produces work that lies at the intersections of contemporary installation, lighting art and interaction design. Aether & Hemera are the ancient Greek god and goddess of brighter upper air and daylight and the studio consists of media architect Claudio Benghi (Aether) and light artist Gloria Ronchi (Hemera).
Their piece ‘Voyage’, which will be displayed at Light City, consists of 300 illuminated floating ‘paper-boats’ and is designed to be an interactive experience which people can engage with through their mobile phones. To interact with the installation, visitors can connect their phones via local free Wi-Fi and a local server.
The individual boats are translucent elements folded from die cut polypropylene sheets; polypropylene is a non-toxic and fully recyclable material and acts as a diffusing element for the lighting inside.
‘Voyage’ installation occupies an area of 800sqm and is made of 300 RGB LED lights, custom-built DMX circuitries and software. The ‘fleet’ becomes an array of LEDs that can be seen as a water canvas for lighting effects that include pre-programmed and real-time behaviours.
The electronics of each boat consist of custom micro-controllers and data receivers, allowing each element to be individually controlled in colour by the wireless control system, which runs on a bespoke software created in-house by the Aether & Hemera studio.
Gloria Ronchi, Aether and Hemera artist, commented: “Part of what excites us about Light City Baltimore is that we, as artists, will be able to transform the Inner Harbour. We believe that – in the near future – our cities will be filled with art and technology that inspire creativity, offer open access to information and cultivate a sense of identity and community. In our creative practice we combine light, digital technology and physical spaces to produce immersive and emotive headspaces; Light City – being a night-time festival of light and technology – seemed the perfect platform for our explorations”.
In 1816, Baltimore was the first American city to illuminate its streets with gas lanterns, revolutionizing the landscape and forever transforming the city with light. It’s with this spirit of invention and transformation that 200 years later Light City will invite the world to join in a celebration of light.
Attend Light City with Purely America from £869pp
Purely Capital Region USA is offering a four night package to Baltimore for UK visitors to attend Light City from £869pp. Price is based on travelling 31 March – 4 April 2016, two adults sharing a standard room and includes return British Airways flights from London Heathrow to Baltimore Washington International Airport and four nights on a room only basis at the four star Hotel Monaco, which includes daily complimentary morning coffee and tea and a daily hosted evening wine hour in served in the hotel’s lobby. To book call Purely Capital Region USA on 0844 80 444 80 or visit www.purelycapitalregionusa.co.uk
For further information on Light City, visit www.lightcity.org
For further information on Aether and Hemera, visit www.aether-hemera.com
For further information on Baltimore, Maryland, and the Capital Region USA, visit www.capitalregionusa.co.uk
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