Light in public space European School of Lighting Design: Amsterdam 16th – 20th December of 2013
light and light-art in the public realm
about safety, comfort and arousing astonishment
The workshop was focussed on public lighting from illumination to light-art. The result of the workshop was focussed on creating a hands-on lighting installation, most likely within a few groups that may have similar intentions.
Topics discussed were: security, wellness, beauty, advertisement: in other words, the social and commercial use of light in a public environment. Also, by being a hands-on activity, al aspects of creating lights in the exterior will come along.
Light festivals are a growing phenomenon. They boost the environment where they are held. For the period of the festival, the focus is at city’s nightscape and it attracts many spectators, also from out of town. Light helps to give a feeling of safety to the people, illuminated architecture supplies night time with radiance, lit blocks of buildings create a comfortable atmosphere, light-art provides identity to the urban district.
Light is therefore an important economical factor in a community.
The workshop was focussed on designing light in the domain of the public space. Examples (good as well as bad) were addressed, we had equipment to our possession and the environment to experiment. Part of the workshop dealt with the artistic, the philosophy and the concept of public lighting and light-art. A part of the activities was hands-on experimenting with light and colour and creating light. Another part was a symposium at December 19, later with a commented walk to the Amsterdam Light Festival.
iLo, Cosdat, Antena collaborate in an international series of workshops spreading from the Czech Republic and Slovakia to Netherlands.
In the framework of their European ‘Life Long Learning’ project, this is the first activity in the Netherlands, consisting of a workshop that started on Tuesday and ended in a lighting guerrilla on Friday around the Tolhuisweg 2, residence of iLo.
SCHEDULE
16 – 20 December 2013
16th (optional)
19:00 welcome international guests
lightwalk Illuminade (optional)
17th
11:00 session 1 – introduction + introducing (Henk van der Geest)
14:00 session 2 – artistic hints and presentation of work (Paul Baartmans)
19:00 session 3 – lightwalk public lighting and illumination (Bas Peters)
18th
11:00 session 4 – evaluation and artistic hints
14:00 session 5 – equipment research and technical presentations (Henk and Jeroen (o.v.) (hands-on)
19:00 session 6 – testing equipment and effects in the exterior (hands-on)
19th
11:00 session x – expert meeting (t.b.a.)
+ 18:30/19:00 – start of a guided tour in groups through illuminade – optional included
20th
11:00 session 7 – evaluation and artistic hints (Henk van der Geest)
14:00 session 8 – preparation guerilla lighting
19:00 session 9 – guerilla lighting
symposium
symposium
14:00 – start of the symposium, moderator Henk van der Geest
14:05 – keynote Felix Guttmann, director of Amsterdam Light Festival
14:15 – Hans Akkerman – chief illumination dIVV Amsterdam
14:45 – Ellen de Vries – lighting designer and artist LUXLAB
15:15 – Isabel Nielen and Bastiaan Schoof – consultants and coördinators ALF
15:30 – break
16:00 – Rombout Frieling – OPEN LIGHT creative lab TU/e Intelligent Light Iinstitute
16:30 – Koert Vermeulen – lightartist at ACTdesign (OVO)
17:00 – Q&A forum
17:30 – closing – drinks – souper
symposium lecturers
Felix Guttman is a chairman of the Amsterdam Light Festival. In his professional life, he has been a founder and CEO of the Canal Bike company and now Reder in the Canal Company. He holds a position as Adjunct Professor Entrepreneurship at the Erasmus University among many other positions in various boards.
Hans Akkerman is a lighting consultant at the City of Amsterdam, dienst Infrastructuur, Verkeer en Vervoer. He is responsible for the public lighting of Amsterdam and the illumination of a wide range of buildings.
Ellen de Vries has her studio and provides lighting design for interior and exterior projects. She wants to surprise the world with her fascination for the immaterial quality of light and the atmospheres that she can provide with that.
Isabel Nielen is a lighting designer for many years and has worked in various environments with a big foot in large open-air spectacle. She has been with the iLo from the start and leads it together with founder Henk van der Geest. For the ALF she is the artistic consultant and coordinator for the illuminade.
Rombout Frieling is the brains behind OPENLIGHT, the creative lab of the Intelligent Lighting Institute at TU/e that works for the cultural revolution of digital led-lighting. We create explorative and experiential propositions to open up the field of lighting. We set out to identify new themes, to inspire and to bring together disciplines to push propositions forward.
Koert Vermeulen has over 20 years of experience in the fields of architecture, entertainment and art installations. His lighting and multimedia design for the opening and closing ceremonies of the SINGAPORE 2010 YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES made ACT lighting design one of the world’s leading independent lighting design firms. He continues to find with new ways to encapture audiences and to develop new visual design techniques, constantly researching new domains of application.
Henk van der Geest is a lighting designer for more than 30 years, working mainly in theatre, architecture and exhibition projects, although sometimes in the exterior as well. He founded iLo because there was no artistic development on lighting design.
Participants
| Katarína Ďuricová | coordinator/ production |
| Daniel Kozlík | light technician, webmaster |
| Milan Slama | sound and light technician/ director |
| Zuzana Godálová | artist and curator Nastupiste |
| Laura Murguía Sanchéz | architekt and light designer in architectural projects and public space Haz Lighting |
| Branislav Bernár | owner of compagny/ light design for installation in public space DJ centre |
| František Fabián | |
| Jan K. Rolník | |
| Jan Dluhoš | |
| Domenico Casillo | lichttechnicus museum |
| Henk Langeveld | lichtontwerper |
| Bas Peeters | (licht)kunstenaar |
| Katinka Maraç | lichtontwerper |
| Carla Monchen | ontwerper |
