​International lighting designers of the year: Lights in Alingsås 2015

Over the weekend the eight international designers responsible for the lighting in this year’s Lights in Alingsås festival gathered in the town for a workshop. Also present was Emma Cogswell from the UK, representing IALD (the International Association of Lighting Designers),an organization we will be working with closely this year. When our international stars met in Alingsås they spent time discussing technical matters to do with the festival, but also managed to have fun.

Lighting designers of the year

In September a workshop of around 60 international students will be led by Anna Sbouko from Greece, Kevan Shaw from Scotland, Roberto Corradini and Marco Palandella from Italy, Reinhard Germer from Germany, Katja Winkelmann from Germany, Andrea Hartranft from the US and Katarina Hennig from Sweden. Together they will work to prepare for the festival. 

    – It was a great group here in Alingsås at the weekend. This year’s designers worked well together, discussions were open and constructive and there were masses of creative ideas. It’s going to be really exciting to follow them and their work when they come back to create their installations for our autumn visitors. The last thing Reinhard Germer, the designer from Germany, said before he went was that Alingsås felt positive and welcoming. The organization was professional and he felt at ease here. That bodes well for the future, says Anna Davidsson, Business Strategist with Alingsås municipality.

Read more about the lighting designers of 2015: www.lightsinalingsas.se/en/lighting-designers-2015

This year’s theme, the development of light through the ages, was selected as 2015 has been named by the United Nations as "the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies" (IYL 2015). Read more below.

The designers have taken the first steps in planning the elements which are going to make up this autumn’s exciting sensory experiences. The goal is to give visitors to Lights in Alingsås an immersive experience, where they travel both back and forward in time. Working with Professor Jan Ejhed from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, our designers will explore the history of light, looking for discoveries and phenomena which will inspire the installations along the festival’s light trail.

Sound will have a role in the lighting installations this year too, intensifying the total experience for our visitors. And like last year, German composer Sebastian Studnitzky will lead the creative process which will result in sound experiences designed both to enhance the mood of the light installations and to interact with them.

International and local students can now apply for one of the 60 places mentioned above - and twenty have already done so. Students can also apply for grants to cover the cost of tuition, dormitory accommodation and lunches. Further information on applying can be found on the Lights in Alingsås website: lightsinalingsas.se/sv/workshop-2015

    – Applications for this year’s workshop have already started to arrive and so far about 20 students have applied, including some from Japan, Israel, Panama, Colombia and Italy. This is twice as many as last year at this time - which is great - and more are on the way, says Angelica Larsson, Project Leader of the Lights in Alingsås festival.

IYL (International Year of Light) is a global initiative aiming to raise awareness of how light-based technologies can promote sustainable solutions in the fields of energy consumption, education, agriculture, communications and health. In 2015 the world is celebrating light, its importance today and in the past. IYL’s aim is to make people aware of how important light was - and is – to the global community and to the lives of its citizens. It also aims to focus attention on the role of light in the world by, for example, examining light-related events from the past. During the year, UNESCO will collaborate with scientists, the business community and organizations over the whole world to achieve these goals.

Read more: www.light2015.org
 
See you this autumn!

An exciting new year of thrilling lighting installations has now commenced and we will be able to see the results throughout October. The Lights in Alingsås festival will be opened in an impressive ceremony at the Estrad Arena in the town on Friday, 25 September. 

Lights in Alingsås will run from 25 September to 1 November, 2015.

Read more:
lightsinalingsas.se
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lightsinalingsas
Instagram: instagram.com/lightsinalingsas#

For more information please contact:
Anna Davidsson, Business Strategist
anna.davidsson@alingsas.se
Tel: +46 (0) 322 61 69 01