Phew! There's so much happening this June at Marina Bay and I'm playing octopus here trying to keep up with my articles and social media postings. I shared about GastroBeats in my previous post and this one's dedicated to i Light Singapore 2023 itself.
Curated to the theme of A New Wave this year, most of the artworks are anchored on the colourblue which is omnipresent in nature’s blue spaces such as oceans and rivers, and often associated with emotions such as calmness and serenity, inspiring us to contribute to a more sustainable future as we interact with each installation.
If you are making plans to head down, here are some tips...
1) Not just for the weekends
This year's i Light is not only happening over weekends, so to beat the crowd, try making plans to check them out on weekdays instead. I bet it will save you more time trying to "erase" these people from your Instaworthy shots.
2) Get geared up
Spreading across more areas like South Beach and Millenia Walk, be sure to dress comfy and cool. Prepare your mini fans, and chilled drinks and get ready to clock those steps, or get geared up and rent a bicycle to enjoy these art pieces whilst enjoying the breeze along Marina Bay.
3) Fringe Programmes
This year's iLight will see a lot of fringe events alongside the light installations, so take note of these dates if any catches your eyes...
●GastroBeatsBayfront Event Space (4pm – 11pm daily)As the Festival Village of i Light Singapore, GastroBeats offers a month-long celebration of good food, good music and good fun with can delicacies served up by 50 homegrown F&B vendors and live performances by talented local musicians from a variety of genres, such as 53A and Tabula.*General admission to the Festival Village is free, while charges apply for selected activities.
●Lightwave: Turning the Tide, presented by Alibaba CloudThe Promontory at Marina Bay Weekdays: Sunday to Thursday – 7.30pm to 11pm (last experience at 10.40pm)Weekends: Friday and Saturday – 7.30pm to 12am (last experience at 11.40pm)Lightwave: Turning the Tide imagines a future where human exploits have damaged the world around us irrevocably. Transported to an underwater world, visitors are left to ponder: How have we come to this? Through three unfolding chapters of thought-provoking multi-sensorial light experiences, explore how our way of life has impacted nature, and be inspired to make a change and turn the tide.*Admission tickets are priced at SGD5 each and can be purchased from Klook.
● Light WashKey buildings and bridges across Marina Bay precinct7.30pm – 11pm daily (with extended hours to 12am on Fridays and Saturdays)In line with the Festival’s color theme for this edition, key buildings and bridges around the Bay will be lit up in a blue hue on Festival nights, complementing the light art installations and evoking a tranquil ambience.
● Guided Walking Tour by Let’s Go Tour Singaporei Light Singapore festival grounds3, 4, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25 June (Saturdays and Sundays): 8pm to 9.30pmOn this specially curated walking tour conducted by Let’s Go Tour Singapore over four weekends, hear from experienced guides about this year’s Festival theme, A New Wave, as well as the creative ideas, stories and trivia behind the delightful artworks.*Tickets for the guided tours are priced at SGD30 each and can be purchased from Let’s Go Tour Singapore here.
● Rediscover Marina Bay Walking TourMarina Bay7, 14, 21 June (Wednesdays): 5.30pm, 6pm, 6.30pmFind out how the sea was transformed into a distinctive and sustainable district in the heart of our city. Discover what lies beneath Marina Bay to support sustainable living, and how urban planners sculpted a skyline that is distinctively Singapore. Get the story behind the centrepiece of Singapore’s transformation efforts by joining this special 90-minute walking tour led by URA volunteers. A*Tickets for the guided tour are free and available on a first-come-first-served basis. Sign up here to reserve a spot.
4) Make a pledge
i Light i Pledge, presented by Alibaba CloudThis year, the Festival is once again partnering susGain, a local social enterprise championing sustainability, on i Light i Pledge. Pledge your commitment to eco-conscious practices by making small but impactful changes in your daily lifestyles to cultivate sustainable habits.
● The Switch Off, Turn Up (SOTU) pledge calls for all to switch off non-essential lighting and turn up air-conditioning temperatures during and beyond the festival period. Since the Festival’s inception in 2010, SOTU has been a key component of i Light Singapore’s sustainability drive. The initiative has rallied many building owners, corporations and businesses around and beyond Marina Bay toreduce their energy consumption in lighting and air-conditioning. This year, over 100 buildings and properties will be participating in the initiative (see list of participants here). The programme has also been extended to the public and schools for the first time this year.
● The Be a Zero Hero pledge encourages the public to adopt zero-waste habits such as reducing the use of single-use items and food waste. For each pledge submitted by participants up to the first 5,000 pledges, All Clear - a sustainability enterprise providing offshore and ocean clean-ups - will remove 100g of waste from Singapore waterways. As such, up to 500 kg of waste will be removed as an outcome of the pledge.
For each pledge submitted online, a visual that is unique to each pledge will be generated using Alibaba Cloud’s AI technologies. The visuals can be viewed on i Light i Pledge’s website and as part of the last chapter at Lightwave: Turning the Tide. This initiative aims to demonstrate how a small step taken by an individual can contribute to a larger sustainability objective. Take part in the i Light i Pledge here and stand to win attractive prizes.
5) Key Highlights
This edition will see 22 artists from eight countries coming together to showcase 14 captivating light art installations. There's a few that caught my eye and I feel are definitely not to be missed...
● Tree Man by ENESS (Australia)Location: Event SquareEncircling a sapling in his arms, Tree Man provides sanctuary for a young tree while carving out an inner sanctum for visitors. Falling into his arms feels so warm, so protected as though hugging a real-life BayMax, so comfy to just lean against it.
As one enters the arms of Tree Man, light switches across a spectrum of colours, and sparse melodies on top of a forest-inspired soundtrack are triggered, leaving one to wonder if we can ever find a balance between the digital and natural world. The act of nurturing and connecting with our environment is emphasised in these whimsical light sculptures. Emitting light with heads that are shaped like digital screens, the artwork invites reflection on humans’ insatiable preoccupation with devices, which could be detrimental to our circadian rhythms.
● Glacier Dreams by Refik Anadol Studio (USA) and Julius BaerLocation: Façade of ArtScience MuseumInspired by both the beauty and fragility of glaciers, Glacier Dreams is the result of a groundbreaking, long-term research project involving machine learning, environmental studies, and multi-sensory media art. Visual materials collated from publicly available data and institutional archives, together with glacier images personally collected by Refik Anadol in Iceland, are processed through machine learning algorithms and transformed into Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based multi-sensory narratives.
The artist, together with his Los Angeles-based team, hopes to raise awareness of climate change and rising sea levels through poetic glacier-themed experiences, and also contribute to the study of glaciers with their existing AI tools.
● Trumpet Flowers by Amigo & Amigo (Australia)Location: Clifford SquareInspired by gramophones, these super-sized flowers burst to life occasionally with a specially commissioned musical score by Otis Studio, accompanied by some of Sydney’s finest jazz musicians. Immerse yourself in this playful and fun musical garden using the interactive keys and try to activate to "whole band". I love how everyone comes together to create a beautiful piece of music, bring in your friends or simply work with the other visitors...
● Résonances by Louis-Philippe Rondeau in collaboration with ELEKTRA (Canada)Location: Open Plaza, OUE BayfrontRésonances is an interactive installation that embodies the inexorable passage of time. It seeks to reveal the limit between present and past. As an arch of light appears in darkness, a temporal portal emerges. When visitors cross this threshold, their image will be projected onto the adjacent wall and seem deployed in time through the slit-scan technique. In this visual metaphor, the past constantly takes over the present, and visitors will see their own image fade inexorably into the oblivion of white light. The artwork emphasises that all light is the manifestation of events that have already occurred; the twinkle we see in the night sky is but a bygone snapshot of the stars. Try walking through the portal in different poses, with different people and create your very own timeline artwork.
● Show III by Chen Jiawen, Lai Ling Ling Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Singapore) and James Cook University (Singapore)Location: South Beach Main Entrance (next to JW Marriott Singapore South Beach drop-off point)What does one usually think about in the shower? Let's take a quick one in public?Inspired by a belief that showers are perfect settings for self-contemplation, Show III is an invitation to unwind outdoors by soaking in its calming blue light, with the company of a composed soundscape and virtual water droplets. The act of showering without water serves as a reminder for visitors to reflect on their water usage. It also aims to provide an alternative environment where one can be free of worries in the bustle of the city.
Ok, spoilers up to here, the rest is for you to experience and enjoy.i Light Singapore 2023, presented by DBS, will be held from 1 to 25 June 2023, 7.30pm to 11.00pm daily with extended hours to 12.00am on Fridays and Saturdays. Admission is free, while charges apply for certain programmes. Visit https://www.ilightsingapore.gov.sg for more information.
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