Vivid Sydney 2016 Part 1: Garden of Light

​Simone and I recently have been crazily busy with work and working on our video! I am glad that this weekend I finally got some time this weekend to relax a bit.

Vivid Sydney, Sydney's annual light and music festival, finished two weeks ago. The first one was held back in 2009, and the festival has definitely expanded over the past few years to include new areas around Sydney.

This year, the Royal Botanic Gardens hosted the Garden of Light as a part of Vivid Sydney, in celebration of its 200th birthday. ​

​​A major attraction this year located in the Royal Botanic Gardens was the Cathedral of Lights, a beautiful light tunnel covered in thousands of flower-shaped LEDs, spreading across 60 metres with a height of 8 metres. The arched shape of the tunnel reassembles that of the doorways of cathedrals. I went to the Botanic Gardens 3 times, once on a Sun with my friends, once on a Mon long weekend with my mum and this time with Simone on a Thurs. Everytime was packed. Simone and I took some photos along the outside of the tunnel instead of trying to battle our way through the crowd and get photobombed by 100 people.

It was still impossible to void some extra heads in the photos, but I am pretty happy with the results. Tried to do some bokeh too.

I love the flower LEDs. Fits in with the garden theme very nicely.

Some of the Vivid staff were getting really cranky, telling people to not "touch, move, pull or BITE" the lights. Oh dear.

One of my personal favourites was Synthesis, a 3D mapped video project onto a Oak?? tree. According to the description, the artwork celebrates organisms and the role they play in the ecosystem. It was extremely impressive, esp. how the projection intricately followed the contour of the tree and its roots.

Towards the end of the Garden of Light trail was Will o' the Wisps, which included some glowing mushrooms that (reminds me of something from Princess Mononoke) and some pattern projections onto trees (wisps). According to the description, wisps are visual metaphors for "seemingly impossible-to-reach hopes or goals, as the projections constantly appear and disappear.

Thoughts & feelings:

- Love the fresh ideas in Vivid this year & artworks which incorporate nature

- Hope something as/more amazing will be in next year's Vivid Sydney too

- Crowd control was a bit of an issue, esp. on that long weekend that came after a week of pouring rain, but the organisers did well to make sure everything ran smoothly

I still remember when I was back in high school, I went out to the city for dinner one night, and on the way home along Macquarie Street, I saw light projections on builidngs, and I thought, hey, that's pretty cool! I am very proud, as a Sydney-sider, that Vivid Sydney has grown to internationally recognised event (The Guardian also listed Vivid Sydney as one of the world's Top 10 ideas festivals!) that attracts international and domestic and local visitors alike.

I will also write a Part 2 (and possibly a Part 3) of Vivid Sydney soon.

Simone and I will also be uploading our first video (YAY) very soon. Check out our Youtube channel and stay tuned!

#events #sydney #music #light #night #botanicgardens #chatswood #australia #art