Green Space Dark Skies
Scotland & Northern Ireland
Client: Walk The Plank // Unboxed: Creativity in the UK
Creative concept & Producers: Walk the Plank
Services: Lighting Design for Scotland & Northern Ireland
Overview: A series of mass gatherings celebrating nature and our access to it
A once-in-a-lifetime experience for people to come together, after the isolation of the pandemic, to experience the UK’s beautiful natural spaces and create magical moments that were captured on film.
Thousands of people from all paths in life became Lumenators, carrying a low impact light into the landscape. Together, we experienced beautiful green spaces across the UK. Hundreds of lights made patterns on mountains, lochs, seashores and moorlands across Scotland and Northern Ireland. All lights were portable, battery powered, recharged by renewables, and sensitive to the night-time environment.
Sustainability and accessibility were key themes. We left no trace of our time in each location. Each location remained accessible to the public during set up, show, and take down. We took a huge audience on the journey with us – every event was captured on film, our luminous patterns emerging in shots from the air. Watched by millions, the footage has been broadcast in each of the four nations of the UK and worldwide online.
NSLD developed lighting concepts and co-directed movement for sites including The Giants Causeway; Loch Inch in the Cairngorms National Park; The Ring of Brodgar and Stones of Stenness, and North Ronaldsay in Orkney. Storytelling through light was mapped out ahead of performances with aerial views in mind, so that words, stellar constellations, and pictograms good be read from the air. Lumenators became both audience and the performers. Light formed images from above and gave scenic ambience to landscapes below as well as performance lighting to participants. Dynamic streams of light momentarily flooded the countryside, often accompanied by live music.
Please see films on YouTube for project credits for each location.