PERCEPTION 23JAN-3FEB
EDINBURGH IT PLAYS WITH YOUR MIND.
INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION TO THE THEME Ever had the feeling you are being constantly watched or followed? Well that is the basis of the entire theme. Walking down the closes at night may freak most of us out especially when it is pitch black but with friends who says we dont have any fun scaring each other even more. Since the closes are barely lit and most closes don’t actually have lights, the feeling of walking round them makes you feel on edge and “creeped out” but I want to add to this feeling and make it a lot more intense and put people slightly on edge. These closes are quiet at night and not many people walk through them but hopefully by making the closes increasingly creepy people would get others to walk down as group then they could interact with the installations. The installations that I would like to have in the closes would be some how interactive on a one to one basis. This enhances the feeling of being almost hunted by the installations. From the research that many lighting festivals do not actually have a one to ne interaction basis, though some do so i want to look at them further and look at how they get the public involved.
INTRODUCTION TO THE FESTIVAL In Edinburgh especially during January and February the city is very quiet, dark, cold and miserable so to bring people to Edinburgh during these months we are introducing PERCEPTION. The aim is to get people using the closes lining the Edinburgh Royal Mile, these closes are derelict and are never used as people dont feel comfortable walking though them alone. The light festival is to brighten up the closes and get people using them to explore the city. Using the closes from the top of the royal mile people can weave in and out of the finding their way around while enjoying the installations and maybe find some interesting things along the way. The festival starts on January 23rd, which was Blue Monday 2014 and is free. Just go explore the darker, quieter corners of the city.
BACKGROUND RESEARCH LYON Lyon uses a mixture of designers from lighting desginers to sound designers to create the 4 day long festival. What is particularly interesting is the Lost Paradise section. The enteance to the collection of installations has the name “Lost Paradise� before you enter. There is also lighting designs projected onto the floor where people can see their shadows and play with the shapes of their bodies. Projections on to buildings tell different stories but all these are nterpretations from the one theme that is thanking Mary, mother of Jesus every year for ridding the city of the plague. The residents of Lyon light a candle and put it on their windows to signify their thanks. Almost 4million people travel to Lyon for this event. Lyons designs are all over the city, forcing people to travel to find the pieces while finding their way around the city at the same time. This festival looks at the brighter side of things and giving thanks. Perception looks at the darker side of our senses and how they can sometimes play tricks on us. Anything can convince us to go see something if it looks beautiful but what would happen if the festival tried to convince us to visit the installations when they are aimed to creep us out
Images by Chloe Alcorn
OTHER LIGHTING FESTIVALS BERLIN Berlin Festival of Lights is similar to Lyon in the sense that the historical landmarks of the city are incorporated into the designs. The city is transformed into one large exhibition and lasts 12 days. All of the designs can mean completely different things to different people; it’s all about how the design is perceived. Berlin uses projections on the ground where the public can interact with the installation and play with their shadows. This is another example of how lights can be used to celebrate something on a large scale. PERCEPTION is looking at the shadows and the derelict parts of Edinburgh. Enhancing the feeling of the fear people feel when walking alone in the city.
Images found on http://festival-of-lights.de/en/
BACKGROUND RESEARCH FIELD OF LIGHTS This is the first time that designer Bruce Munro has had an exhibition staged in an urban environment, with the piece, comprising 9,500 lighted glass spheres on stems. The exhibition aims to create a natural and immersive experience in which people are invited to view St. Andrew’s square in a new way. The piece was inspired by the heat and brightness of the red desert in Australia. These lights sway in the wind. Which highlights the movement of the wind while subtly changing colour. This somewhat simple sphere on a stick design, using the term “simple” lightly, creates a welcoming atmosphere to welcome people from all over the world to the City of Edinburgh.
EDINBurGH CLOSES THE ROYAL MILE The Royal mile has a long history though many people walk by it without even noticing. Edinburgh has a lot of closes which have now became derelict space. No one uses them which makes people uneasy. The closes are barely lit so at night this doesn’t help the foot traffic. Many of the closes lead to other sections of Edinburgh City Centre but people are unwilling to use them due to how dark and how quiet they are. Some of the closes have already been updated, leading to pubs and leading to shops but the majority of them have been left to ruin without people even looking twice. The aim of the festival is to change this and get people using these closes to travel around the city as well as improving the way they look.
Photos by Nat Smith on http://submersioninedinburgh.tumblr.com
TARGET MARKET WHO IS IT FOR Emily McDonald is a 20 year old music student from Edinburgh who studies at Glasgow Caledonian University. She works in HMV part time while studying. She also has a band where she sings and plays guitar named “The Unknowns”. Emily listens to a lot of music but her ultimate favourite are Metallica who’s band posters she has covering the walls of her room. She doesn’t have any tattoos yet but with her next wage she is planning on starting a half sleeve with a mixture of all her favourite bands. Living in student halls “sucks” but she says the only thing she enjoys about it is the fact that she has met loads of people from around the world who she now considers as her friends, though her closest friends are her band mates. Emily is quite messy with half of her wardrobe is on the floor mixed in with course work, her friends always tell her to at least tidy up a bit but she just laughs and ignores them. She rarely goes home but when she does she likes to go out and relax from all the stress from both University and work and find a good pub where there is live music playing. Emily likes to experiment with her clothing usually printing her own designs on t-shirts and making her own wristbands. She also likes to experiment with hair colour and usually has a different colour at least every month; she’s now starting to use crazy colours and dip dying her hair As a student, she doesn’t have the best of diets, living off pot noodles and micro meals and take out, Two for Tuesdays at dominos is certainly the most popular, though she does tell her mum and dad that she’s eating properly. She doesn’t really exercise but the odd night she likes to go skating. Her dream is that her band will get signed to a music label but if not she’s happy as long as she plays with her band.
TARGET MARKET WHO IS IT FOR Anwar Patel is a 25 year old Marketing graduate from London. He is now looking to live somewhere else, as he is bored of London though he loves the fast paced life in a large city but would like to try somewhere new. He lives in a tiny one bedroom flat with his long time partner. He works for a London based company where he has worked for 2 years but is applying for marketing jobs outside of England. Anwar loves Art and Design and anything that comes with it so he goes traveling around the UK to visit museums and art galleries. In his recent travels he visited The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art that he plans on returning to. He loves staying home and cooking with his partner though going to restaurants for dinner and drinking fine wines happens twice a month. Anwar doesn’t drink any other time than when he goes out to a meal, as he does not really like the feeling of a light head. His wardrobe was largely bought by his girlfriend though the odd shirt he did purchased himself. Anwar in his spare time likes to socialise with his friends from university where they usually play poker or other card games. He also goes to the odd football games though he doesn’t look like the type to be into football. Music isn’t really his thing he prefers to read books, especially To Kill a Mocking Bird as its been his favourite since school. He has a miniature library at home that he built himself over flowing with books. His girlfriend bought him a kindle so he can download books but barely uses it as he prefers having books in font of him.
PROPOSED ROUTE CLOSE LUCKY DIP
To continue with the theme, people are going to come across the installations by accident so it is more of a surprise, so all the closes were put into a lucky dip and selected at random.
find the closes, find the instalations 55.950631, -3.186337 55.950651, -3.186076 55.952305, -3.180561 55.950182, -3.182523 55.950443, -3.184389 55.950344, -3.186370 55.950666, -3.184705 55.944757, -3184135 55.950678, -3187006 55.950224, -3.186532 55.950885, -3.188886 55.949093, -3.189247
CLOSE THEMES The overall theme is perception and how our senses can trick us, but as designers you can interpret this into whatever you want. Each close has its own theme relating to perception, how the theme is shown is completely up to you. Express, experiment and play however you want, just creep people the hell out while having a bit of fun,
THEMES The Creep. Something is watching me. Arachnophobia. Do you wanna’ play a game? Dead End. Black Sunday. Dont look now. Scared of the dark. Eerie 13. Life without a soul. Hex. Buiried alive. All levels of designers are welcome. There is limited space so please get in touch as soon as possibe if you want to take part. In your aplication please state what sub topic you have chosen.
BRANDING CHOSEN COLOUR SCHEME Though the concept of the design is quite “creepy” the use bright colours to brings it to life. Red because red reminds us of anger and evil. Blue because it’s going to start on blue Monday and the festival is for more for the rainy day. Yellow because in the dark it gives the sensation of an eerie glow that you see in horror films. Black is used because the darkness needs to be emphasised in the festival and white because of the misty fog on a dark night.
LOGO DESIGN
PERCEPTION
The way two lights cross over and create a shape is what the logo is based on. Experimentation with objects as simple as torches created the look though adding a hint of colour which is from the chosen colour scheme links it to perception.
FONTS ORATOR STD
This font is used for the logo design, and text on the leaflets and posters. This sans serif font is simple and modern which is why it was chosen for the festival.
Helvetica Neue
Used for the body font of the booklet, another sans serif font and easy to read.
DIGITAL PLATFORMS
APP
To get around, i want to create an app. The app, before the festival starts has a count down of how long there is left before the start of the festival like a ticking time bomb.
When the festival begins, Inspiration has been taken from apps such as Drift by Broken City Lab and DĂŠrive. These apps allow you to get lost in a familiar place, this is the aim of the festival, to accidentally come across the installations and take a photo of what they find which will then be sent to an online database for everyone to see. The reason the festival takes this uncontrolled approach is to enhance the feeling of helplessness and surprise while taking part to put the people involved more on edge, though there is a “help meâ€? button for when people get lost and need a bit of help back to the main street.
DIGITAL PLATFORMS WEBSITE
There is a website available giving information on the festival, why there is going to be a festival, and to give tourists and the people who live here some information on what there is to see. On the website there is a map so everyone can get information quick about how to get around and bus routes around the city and a page available so people can find good deals on hotels when the festival is on.
the countdown to the festival is also on the website so people who dont have the app know exactly when it starts.
The website would include examples of the instalations to give people an idea of wat they are going to see.
SOCIAL MEDIA PERCEPTION also has both a twitter account and Facebook acount to reach a larger audience hopefully bringing in foreign crowds. Both accounts will be updated regurarly about the festival and designers that are taking part without giving much away about what thy are designing
PRINTED MATERIALS LEAFLETS Two leaflet designs have been created to hand out promoting the festival, these can be pinned up in universities, clubs and pubs, which hits the selected target market. The leaflets will only have the dates on the front and on the back the latitude and longitude of the closes which will have an installation in them. People will look at the codes and have no idea what they mean, continuing the idea of getting lost and confused.
PRINTED MATERIALS POSTERS Posters are needed to promote the festival. Not much information will be given in the posters just the date, meaning people have to look up the festival. These posters will be put in bus stops and around the city so people can see them while traveling.
SOUVENIRS TOURCHES Torches are available to help people see in the dark, one small enough to attach to your keys and the other Large. They help you find your way when lost finding your way through the quiet dark passages of Edinburgh. These are available on the online store so you can come prepared for the darkness that is PERCEPTION. PERCEPTION is the only light festival that celebrates the darkness and bad weather during the months of January and February. You don’t know what is watching you when you are walking down the closes.
GAANT CHART PROJECT PLAN
PERCEPTION