3D Light Night Anaglyphs

Light Night, Leeds 4th Oct 2013

Momentous!!: rightly describes this year's Light Night in Leeds, borrowing of course from the projection-mapped Civic Hall centrepiece that beckoned the crowds to swarm throughout our city's multifaceted event. With the people's cultural crown jewels of Leeds up and on display throughout the balmy October evening, the hoards of visitors proved the venture to be a roaring success for family-friendly Leeds.

Think 'Festival At Night' totally free! What's not to love? Light Night represents the planning and mobilisation of a huge amount of people who can be quite justly called 'Light Night Makers' so a massive thanks to them, otherwise it'd just be a mostly normal Friday night!

The aim of Light Night in the European cities, where it was popularised, was to throw open the doors belonging to the guardians of the cultural treasures, such as museums and galleries, to create the opportunity for a nocturnal, out-of-hours experience of the institutions.

Not to left out, these occasions were seized upon by local artists and cultural makers to produce work that spilled out onto the streets and splashed cultural hotspots all over the nooks and crannies of their otherwise urbane environments.

With countless sights to witness and interactions to enjoy from our annual cultural smorgasbord, in Leeds, I'm concentrating my 3D upload on two contrasting offerings.

The Town Hall: vast, stately ...and open! 
Although the Town Hall included other items on the Light Night menu, I opted for touristing through the Courtroom, down into the Victorian Cells and along Bridewell corridor.

This route is effectively a tour through a reminder of previous Leeds' century justice system. Gamely sited amidst the solid rock Town Hall roots were the continuous video works of Paul Rooney, Clare Phelan and Fiona Grady. Collectively they refocus the ominous weight of the building with anarchic thoughts, measured response and escapist whimsy in the space and gloomy shadows between the indestructible walls. From an artist's point of view, quite a tough gig, I fancy!

So it was a delight to emerge out of the Town Hall steps in the remaining daylight and catch Hunslet Club Dance Troupe's 'Inside the Big Top'; confidently displaying their
circus-themed prowess to an appreciative audience.

Best viewed using Red/Cyan Anaglyph Glasses

3D Light Night Side-by-Side

3D Light Night Animated Gifs

In the crowded City Museum.
Numerous distractions and sights, genuinely too many to mention, on the way to my second visit to the City Museum that evening where I struck gold with Andrews & Lynch's
'Phase Revival: An Optical Harmonica' in the city floor-map room.

Wow! Effective staging unites two fundamental physics elements in a scintillating tour de force. Within a cunningly simple apparatus light is scattered, amplified and cascaded about the room. A Newton's Cradlesque relationship between gravity and light?

No less cunning was Jon Hughes's soundtrack: completing the mesmerising sound and vision assault. The effect on the audience is testified by their hushed and curious response. Absolute bonus then, when I met both Beth Andrews and Jon Hughes! An unexpected meeting of two thirds of the team that executed such a brilliant bare-essence idea.

With the audience caught in the spell woven by the naturally mathematic installation, the heart and soul of the inquisitiveness in us all was exemplified by a small child seemingly intent on recharging his glo-stick from the source of the pure whitelight beam... Becs Andrews left no doubt as to who was in charge of the forces of nature in the space at that point!

Special Mention to James Hill, who originated Light Night in Leeds for those that remember, enlisting the help of Jason Hird's Institute For Crazy Dancing to create 'Treasure Hunt', back in 2007!  The initial idea of that event is continually reinvented, evolving to give us the Light Night we now have and hopefully will have in years to come.

James, currently with Pyramid Of Arts, requested 3D photos of the Nellie the Elephant artefacts in a trunk on display in the Civic Museum, as well as 3D pics of the rickshaw Nellie used in 'Saying Goodbye to the Circus', in Victoria Gardens. These were part of Pyramid of Arts' participants' three-part installation across this year's Light Night, also involving projected animations. A jumbo-sized historical 'Thank You' to James!: Light Night rocks!