Digital Waves Lightwaves Festival returned to MediaCityUK in Salford Quays for its sixth year. It featured sixteen installations, most of which encouraged audience participation and interaction.
I
t was the sixth time Quays Culture hosted the
London-based artist. Designed to challenge our pre-conceptions,
Lucy Dusgate acted as the Creative Producer of the
through feeds of data and information shows. This particular piece
Lightwaves event in Salford Quays, and was the last year production.
“This year we had sixteen amazing installations from all over the
world, several of them especially commissioned by us. Visitors and
residents could see the extraordinary world-class exhibition for free
Youth Culture is a towering sculpture of a hooded youth illuminated
encouraged the public to interact with the ultrasound sensors that stimulate the LEDs, which changed the sculpture’s appearance in response to the audience’s stimulation.
Spectrum, located in the main square outside the Lowry Theatre, was
and wander amongst the bars and restaurants of Media City to
a length of circular hoop lights that illuminated when in contact with
kick off Christmas,” reflected Dusgate.
structure, the lights ripple in an echo effect. The result was to
complete a genuinely memorable evening – such a wonderful way to A free mobile app, developed by the makers of the Bee in the City
app, was available to download to help visitors navigate their way around the different sites.
During the opening evening, visitors could take part in an interactive workshop, the Manchester Survivors Choir (a collection of survivors
sound. When triggered with someone’s voice from either end of the highlight how we communicate and decode data with multiple sensors.
Moving further towards Media City, an interactive outdoor wall was created by Kimatica Studio. This unique digital experience, named
Relax and Release, broke the boundaries between fantasy and reality,
from the Manchester Arena attack at the Ariana Grande concert in
allowing visitors to create magical, fluid light projections as they
took place.
Manchester-based artist James Medd collaborated with a team from
2017) performed outside the Lowry Theatre and tours of the sites In total, there were sixteen light art installations completing the
moved in front of the wall.
creative industry specialist Eagle Labs to produce Illumin, an
programme, with most of them encouraging an aspect of interaction
interactive installation on the water’s edge. Taking inspiration from
Youth Culture debuted by Stanza, an internationally recognised
of buoy-like lanterns on the water that illuminated in a pattern of
from visitors.
132
www.arc-magazine.com
local artists and community groups, the installation was comprised