Annual interactive light festival, ‘Lightwave,’ is at Salford Quays in MediaCity for 10 days, from Friday 7th December until Sunday 16th December.

Showcasing interactive lit-up structures, with new and exclusively commissioned digital artwork being displayed. The festival showcases new and emerging talent from local, national and even international artists.

The festival encourages interactivity with the 16 free light experiences that premiere across Salford Quays.

This year, the festival sees Quays Culture showcasing a curated exhibition of Blackpool Illuminations’ much-loved light collection, including the popular Daleks and Tardis alongside a bespoke Manchester bee lightbox artwork.

This year a free mobile phone App is available to download, to help visitors navigate their way around the art and other attractions – brought to you by the makers of the ‘Bee in the City’ app.

The launch featured new and exciting additions, with a public performance by Manchester Survivors Choir on Friday 7th December. The launch also included interactive workshops, talks and tours throughout the opening weekend.

Ronan Devlin, an artist who has a piece entitled ‘Aura’ at the Lightwaves festival at Salford Quays this year, explained how it works.

“It uses two camera sensors and one captures audience motion and one uses facial coding to capture audience emotion. So, the facial coding detects your facial expressions and runs through a colour wheel, from anger through to joy. So, anger being red, joy being yellow and green being neutral.

It captures your micro expressions in your face as well, it codes them and reflects it back to you”.

He also explains how he thinks festivals like Lightwaves are changing how art is perceived.

Ronan also went into the details of how exactly he was inspired to make ‘Aura’.

You can see the Lightwaves festival until the 7th of December.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *