Glasgow under the microscope
(UK) – Stellar series of events to light up Glasgow during LUCI next week – the last international lighting conference of 2015 UN International Year of Light.
Taking place 11-15 November, the LUCI (Lighting Urban Community International) City Under the Microscope conference in Glasgow is the last international conference on lighting in 2015, the UN International Year of Light, featuring seminars, workshops, an exhibition and a series of events.
These events include NVA’s Ghost Peloton Glasgow (now sold-out) at the Whisky Bond in Port Dundas on 12 and 13 November. This is a new iteration of the work originally commissioned for the Yorkshire Festival 2014 marking the Grand Depart of the Tour de France last year. An award-winning short film of Ghost Peloton can be viewed at: https://vimeo.com/108332712. Local volunteers are participating with organisers NVA in all aspects of the performances.
The façade of the City of Glasgow College (former College of Building and Printing) in the city centre will feature large projections, created by Glasgow-born artist Craig Morrison in collaboration with students and staff from the college, between 11 – 15 November. This work, The Glasgow Portrait Project, will show over 150 portraits of the people that make Glasgow. Two other pieces will also be shown on the college façade – LIGHT, by German artists Hartung and Trenz, a piece to mark the UN International Year of Light. Craig Morrison has also collaborated with Hartung and Trenz to create a site-specific artwork, entitled I Love You, an animated sequence that will project the words over 50 metres wide on the building.
The South Portland Street Footbridge will be illuminated by Philips Lighting each evening between 11 – 14 November, and on the evening of 11 November, there will be a walking tour of lighting installations in and around the city centre.
In addition, an exhibition at The Lighthouse – Radiance Reflected – telling the story of lighting in Glasgow over the centuries and how this has evolved, will open to the public on 12 November and run until the Christmas period. Bailie Allan Stewart, a past president of LUCI, said: “These fantastic events will illustrate the beauty that can be created through lighting and I have no doubt they will be a memorable feature of the LUCI conference for Glaswegians and our visitors. From Port Dundas down to the Clyde, next week there will be something amazing to see at night that was made by the use of light.”
Speakers in the seminar and workshop programme include Iain Macrae, Head of Global Lighting Applications at Thorn Lighting Group, who will be talking about public lighting for communities in developing nations, and Mark van Doorn, Design Manager at Philips Lighting, who will talk about Glasgow’s input to the Liveable Cities programme.
The themes of the conference’s seminars and workshops reflect the changing role of lighting in cities and how it features in regeneration, science and innovation, design, sustainability and the green economy, engineering, resilience, the creative industries, tourism, manufacturing, intelligent street lighting, smart cities, and the redevelopment of the Forth & Clyde Canal. There are around 70 member cities in the LUCI network. Around 120 international delegates are expected to attend the conference in Glasgow.
