Sydney’s annual outdoor display extravaganza, which last year attracted 2.25 million visitors, this year includes a session about street signage that will look at 'typography and signage in an urban context.' Vivid Sydney, the largest festival of light, music and ideas in the Southern Hemisphere, takes place from Friday 24 May to Saturday 15 June.
"Australia's most loved and awarded festival, now in its eleventh year, will bring together light artists, music makers and brilliant minds to showcase Sydney as the creative industries hub of the Asia-Pacific,” says Destination NSW CEO and Executive Producer - Vivid Sydney, Sandra Chipchase.
Vivid Sydney is owned, managed and produced by Destination NSW, the NSW Government's tourism and major events agency, and in 2018 attracted 2.25 million attendees, delivering $172.9 million in visitor expenditure into the NSW economy.
"I am proud to say our marketing activities saw a record 185,887 travel packages sold to domestic and international visitors for Vivid 2018 - an increase of 37 per cent over the previous year. Vivid Sydney is a must-attend event for travellers and motivates people to visit Sydney and beyond," Chipchase said. “The Vivid Sydney 2019 program offers inclusive and accessible installations, events and experiences that you can enjoy for one evening or over 23 nights."
One of those events is Street signage, design and lived behaviour at the Australian Design Centre, 101/113-115 William St, Darlinghurst, 30 May, 6pm - 8pm.
Four design and environment experts will discuss the use of typography and signage in an urban context, looking at how signage is used to influence modify and comment on human behaviours.
Specific to Sydney, but also exploring universal issues of signage, the city and human behaviour, this event explores graphic design beyond mere aesthetics and brands, instead focussing on the urban environment, and the issues that go with it. The talk considers how the designer plays more meaningfully into these city spaces and how we respond.
Registration is required. Details can be found here.
Other Vivid Sydney highlights this year: Argyle Cut in The Rocks returns with Pixar Animation Studios; Campbells Cove and Hickson Road Reserve rejoin the light walk; Filmmaker Spike Lee headlines Vivid Ideas; The Cure, Rufus Du Sol, FKA Twigs & Underworld perform at Vivid Music events.
Chipchase also announced the inaugural Vivid School for High School students in years 9-12 to assist students to learn more about the creative processes involved in imagining, designing and delivering light-based artworks for the huge event.
"This initiative will enable students and their teachers to meet the professionals behind Vivid Sydney's iconic building projections and light walk installations, and to hear from artists, designers and technicians about their career paths and how they harnessed opportunities to build their skills for future projects and employment.”
VIVID LIGHT
This year's Light Walk sees over 50 radiant works curated into the largest outdoor gallery of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, stretching for more than three kilometres.
In a partnership first, Academy-Award winning Pixar Animation Studios will illuminate Sydney's heritage-listed Argyle Cut in The Rocks with a creative light projection that will delight visitors as they are transported through a visual feast of behind-the-scenes artwork and the evolution of iconic animation. The return of the Argyle Cut to the Vivid Light program will be a huge drawcard for festival goers featuring the captivating characters of Pixar films, including the beloved duo of Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
For this year's Lighting of the Sails, Los Angeles-based Chinese American artist-filmmaker Andrew Thomas Huang presents Austral Flora Ballet. This hypnotic tribute to Australia's exquisite native plants and flowers incorporates a dancer's movements in response to the sensuous arcs of the Sydney Opera House's silhouette.
Visitors can once again weave their way through the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney for close encounters with illuminated artworks that reflect and refract both light and nature. Glowing, darting, hovering above the ground, Firefly Field is a mesmerising installation of 500 flying light points that simulate the aerial ballet of these tiny nocturnal lampyridae.
Viewers are encouraged to look beyond the night sky and wonder what secrets lie beyond the stars through KA3323, a retro-futuristic satellite dish overgrown with alien plant matter that has mysteriously landed in the Botanic Garden. While at I Hear You (But Do You Hear Me?), an array of LED light poles generates a space between two people with their voices starting a conversation of light and sound, questioning inequality in the digital era.
Across the Quay, the imposing art-deco facade of the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia will be transformed by award-winning Australian-Columbian artist Claudia Nicholson who, together with light veterans Spinifex Group, reimagine her vibrant artworks into Let Me Down, an animated cycle of creation, destruction and regeneration underscored by the contemporary sounds of Lonelyspeck.
Next door, Samsung Electronics Australia will create a once in a lifetime experience at First Fleet Park using some of the most exciting features of the Galaxy S10 to reimagine how you see Vivid Sydney.
Celebrating the International Year of Indigenous Languages, the southern pylon of Sydney Harbour Bridge is set to come to life with Eora: Broken Spear curated by Rhoda Roberts AO with projection design by The Electric Canvas. This powerful work reminds us to reflect, to call country, to read country and listen to country.
The facade of Customs House is once again transformed to become an aquatic wonderland in Under the Harbour by Spinifex Group, sure to delight children and adults alike. The watery world with neon sea creatures, botanical wonderlands, and unclassified oddities will provide a playful and exquisite escape into an extraordinary underwater fantasy certain to inspire audiences and deepen the appreciation of Sydney's aquatic haven.
VIVID SYDNEY PRECINCTS
Popular precincts Taronga Zoo, Darling Harbour, Chatswood, Barangaroo and Luna Park will also light up in 2019.
Vivid Sydney 2019 details can be found here.
