Scots are being invited to participate in a series of large-scale outdoor artworks as part of the Green Space Dark Skies project this summer.
Organisers are recruiting 20,000 people across the UK, including 1000 north of the border, to help light up some of the country’s most outstanding landscapes between April and September this year.
Local participants at places including the Cairngorms will gather at dusk and take on the role of ‘Lumenators’, each armed with a smart light to create a digitally choreographed display to be captured on film.
Each short film will incorporate the stories of the people and places featured and will be broadcast online after the event.
Keren McKean, event organisers Walk the Plank’s Producer for Scotland said: “Scotland’s landscapes are rich, unique and diverse. The country’s dramatic backdrop is globally recognised and attracts over 10 million tourists per year, but often local people and people from particular communities can feel like the great outdoors isn’t for them.
“Green Space Dark Skies is about engaging with communities and encouraging people to feel connected to the land, to enjoy it and to protect it.”
The lighting technology, developed by graduate engineers at Siemens specially for this project, uses existing wireless programmable lights and incorporates something that’s never been done before; the ability for these lights to be animated through geo-positioning, where the position of each light can be known in relationship to the others.
Grant Moir, Chief Executive of the Cairngorms National Park Authority, said: “We are delighted to welcome Green Space Dark Skies to the UK’s largest national park here in the Cairngorms. The project promises to create a unique spectacle celebrating nature, our responsibility to protect it and everyone’s right to explore the countryside.
“As a National Park open to all we are particularly pleased that the organisers are reaching out to such a diverse range of participants, and it is great to see an event of this scale aiming to make a net positive contribution to our collective carbon reduction targets.”
Exact locations of the artworks will only be revealed to the people who have registered to take part.
There will be no spectators, but anyone can take part for free as long as they sign up in advance.
As well as collaborating with cultural partners, including Visit Scotland’s Year of Stories 2022, organisers are working directly with the authorities who are responsible for the conservation of each location to create the events.
Each event will depend on confirmation of landowner permissions, approval of event plans and local stakeholder engagement and therefore event locations and dates may be subject to change.
John Wassell, Creative Producer UK for Walk the Plank, said: “The moment when darkness falls, and we switch the lights off, is going to be the most important collective act of connection between people and nature within each event.”
Green Space Dark Skies is one of 10 major creative projects commissioned by UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, a celebration of creativity taking place across the UK in 2022, designed to reach millions and bring people together.
UNBOXED features free large-scale events, installations and globally accessible digital experiences in the UK’s most ambitious showcase of creative collaboration.
Events in Scotland include About Us (Paisley, 1 to 6 March, public preview on 28 February 2022), Dandelion (across Scotland, April to September), Dreamachine (Edinburgh Dates tbc), Green Space Dark Skies (across Scotland, April to September 2022), PoliNations (Edinburgh, dates tbc) and StoryTrails (Dundee and Dumfries).
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