Random VIVIDness 2014 (8)

Jun 26, 2014

3 min read

Sydney May-June 2014 (11 photos, 1 video). This is part 8 of my VIVID Sydney series.

Love is in the air Everywhere I look around Love is in the air Every sight and every sound

And I don’t know if I’m being foolish Don’t know if I’m being wise But it’s something that I must believe in And it’s there when I look in your eyes

“Love Is in the Air” is a 1977 song sung by John Paul Young. It was the theme song to Baz Luhrmann’s 1992 debut feature film Strictly Ballroom. And so this year at the Vivid Festival of Sydney they had an outdoor dance floor with the words “Strictly Sydney” and they played that song over and over and over again. Not the best shots but these couples were really dynamic and swinging it, as opposed to most others I saw just jiggling up and down and taking selfies.

Between the major displays, there was a small fairground-like area. This year’s festival had a more interactive and party atmosphere than previous years.

The Pool. More than 100 interactive circular platforms sit side by side. Each pad is independent and simultaneously interacts with and ‘listens’ to its environment, adjusting its output according to your movements. It senses where you place your feet, how heavily you land, and how quickly you leap and bound.

Play Me! returned this year. A 3D-mapped projection transforms the façade of Customs House into a series of massive ‘musical sculptures’. You select one of the ‘musical sculptures’ from a touch screen, get onto a platform in front of Customs House and ‘play’ the sculpture to music, bringing it to life in glorious torrents of ever-changing colour, light, form and sound.

Here’s a short 27 second video for anyone interested: Play Me!

Ray is an interactive, talking light sculpture and the first ever solar-powered installation at Vivid Sydney. Festival-goers interact with Ray by pulling on ropes located in charging pods. From their hands, light streams upwards to the summit of the sculpture, then spirals downward in a display of colour, pattern, sound and raw solar power. In turn, Ray translates live data feeds into colourful conversations through his website and social media channels.

Cellular Tesselation is an architectural installation that responds to movements, creating an ever-shifting space of patterned and immersive light. The artwork ‘reads’ the proximity and number of inhabitants inside the pavilion, and feeds this information back to you by adjusting its light output. The pavilion comes alive as more people flock inside.

Colour the Bridge by selecting a section of the bridge to light up, choose your own colour and watch as your illuminated creation brings to life the grey arch and spans of this iconic piece of Australian architecture.