Biodegradable Lighting

Famed design lab Studio Roosegaarde brings SPARK to the Southern Hemisphere

(Lead image – SPARK Bilbao)

Four years ago, Professor of Design – and artist – Daan Roosegaarde was challenged to transform traditional and polluting methods of celebration such as fireworks, balloons, drones, and confetti, into a new sustainable means of celebrating good times, “One of my students said to me ‘Our future is frozen’. His generation is banned from doing so much and no one is providing them with any alternatives. It really made me think about keeping our traditions but modernising them.” The result was SPARK, a poetic performance of thousands of biodegradable light sparks which organically float through the air, creating a stunning sustainable alternative for traditional community celebrations.

New Zealand debut at Auckland Arts Festival 2023

To date, SPARK has exhibited in Bilbao and London and it is now coming to the Auckland Arts Festival. Festival curator Shona McCullagh witnessed the London exhibition attract six times the numbers of visitors expected, with queues lining the streets. Daan explains what drew him to Auckland, “SPARK is our baby and we are very selective about where we take it. We want to exhibit SPARK at art and lighting festivals that showcase innovation, that are freely open to the public, and that encourage a collective experience. Talking with Shona, we felt that the first Auckland Arts Festival since COVID was a good fit. The desire to celebrate at this experimental festival is back, but perhaps in a more sustainable and reflective way after the pandemic.”

Daan sees himself not as an artist but as an activator, “We rarely talk seriously about the future, about what we are going to do about climate change. I want to encourage people to think about how we can preserve our traditions and our celebrations that are so important

to us but in a sustainable way. I hope that by being at the Auckland Arts Festival we can start those conversations in New Zealand.”

Inside SPARK

SPARK works through a combination of design and technology with a 50 x 30 x 50 metre cloud of light sparks made of biodegradable materials moving across the sky, “After many prototypes and a lot of hard work by the team at Studio Roosegaarde, we created floatables that reflect and absorb light and are transported by a combination of nature and wind machines, about fifty-fifty depending on the conditions. It is a silent display, contemplative, more like watching a campfire than the big bangs and explosions of a firework show.”

Daan describes producing SPARK as co- controlling nature. His live team of between five and nine, and himself, assess the space and examine how the wind is likely to behave. He views it like sailing a ship, balancing the power of the wind with technology. It has been tested from minus fifteen to forty degrees and in the rain. Even a windless night works, creating an impressive eerie slow-moving cloud, “Every time is different, showcasing the beauty of the sustainable world, a place of wonder.”

Inside Daan

Daan’s inspiration for his work is all around him. He is from the Netherlands, a country that sits below sea level and has fought climate change for centuries, using technology. The landscape he grew up in, the rivers and trees, were artificially created but are today beautiful. In future Daan is hoping to place flower seeds in the floatables so SPARK will ultimately feed the city as well as light it up, “I believe that we can learn from nature and replicate it using technology, and that we are going to need to do this to get ourselves out of the situation our planet is in.”

Add to his innovative Dutch roots, an obsession with light from an early age, “I have always seen light as a language. Light triggers an emotional response between yourself and the life around you.” His passion has seen him tour the world taking in many natural light and phosphorescence phenomena. He is looking forward to ticking the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves off the list whilst in New Zealand. We’ll wait and see what our arachnocampa luminosa inspire Daan to create next.

SPARK Auckland will be transfixing audiences at Pukekawa / Auckland Domain from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th March between 8 and 11pm. Free tickets will be released online in February.

Credit: Daan Roosegaarde www.studioroosegaarde.net

MOUNTAIN: STATE-OF-THE-ART INTERACTIVE TECH OPENING AAF

Auckland Arts Festival’s opening weekend will see an out-of-this world aerial theatre performance integrating state-of-the-art interactive technology take over Aotea Square.

Mountain will light up the heart of the festival for four nights only, with dancers performing above the ground and against the vertical surfaces around them, responding to a projected digital environment that organically shifts and flows with their movement.

Get involved with the dynamic infrared tracking and mapping technologies yourself, interacting with the projected play space and giant wall on stage after performances.

Produced by Stalker Theatre and Box of Birds, Mountain has headlined at a number of Australian events including the Horizon Festival on the Sunshine Coast, GLOW Festival on the Gold Coast in Queensland, and Newcastle’s New Annual. Mountain has wowed the crowds with its innovative, physical and visual spectacle.

Mountain will be taking over Aotea Square from Thursday 9th March 9.15pm, Friday 10th and Saturday 11th March 8.15pm and 9.30pm, and Sunday 12th March 8.15pm.