Hundreds to create luminous spectacle in Dorset
Here's how you could help artists create a luminous landscape.
Hundreds of local people will come together to create illuminated art in the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty this summer
One thousand local people will take part in a mass gathering in Dorset called Green Space Dark Skies. Artists and creatives will join them to create the stunning pieces of art.
Participants, known as Lumenators, will help artists by walking through the countryside at dusk.
Guided along pathways or waterways and carrying smart lights, that are sensitive to the night-time environment, the beautiful digital choreography will be captured on film and available to watch online afterwards. Each short film will incorporate the stories of the people and places featured.
Lumenators will also be encouraged to share their own connections to the landscape and the local areas as part of their involvement. The artwork will imagine a new way of seeing the local landscape in Dorset and inspire people to care for the planet for future generations.
The Dorset gathering is happening on Saturday 11 June in the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the exact location won’t be revealed to the general public until after the event, to protect this amazing landscape.
Outdoor art experts Walk the Plank are the lead creative organisation in the production of Green Space Dark Skies. John Wassell, Creative Producer said:
“Green Space Dark Skies is about class and landscape, race and landscape, disability and landscape. We want to build more countryside stewards for the future, and to inspire more people to see the connection between their use and enjoyment of the land and our care for the planet.”
20,000 people, from the Cairngorms to the Chilterns, Gower to North York Moors and Dartmoor to the Lagan Valley in Northern Ireland, are being recruited to create large-scale outdoor artworks in 20 of the UK’s most outstanding landscapes for Green Space Dark Skies, part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, from April to September 2022.
The first gathering will be created in the Peak District National Park on 23 April. Green Space Dark Skies is inspired by the 90th anniversary of the 1932 Kinder Scout Mass Trespass, a pivotal event in the movement to secure access to the countryside for ordinary people that influenced the creation of the UK’s network of National Parks.
Green Space Dark Skies will enable people from all walks of life to forge new connections with the countryside by supporting those who experience cultural and physical barriers to experiencing our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty to access events.
The series of gatherings will celebrate the countryside and people’s right to explore it as well as encouraging our responsibility to take care of it for future generations.
Developed by graduate engineers at Siemens specially for this project, the lighting technology uses existing wireless programmable low impact lights and incorporates something that’s never been done before: the ability for these lights to be animated through geo-positioning, where the position of each light can be known in relationship to the others; as well as the potential for this lighting technology to be adopted for use at future major outdoor events.
The Green Space Dark Skies team is working with Dark Skies representatives in many locations to explore how the project might highlight issues around light pollution in our towns, cities and rural landscapes to support wildlife to flourish.
John Wassell added:
“The moment when darkness falls, and we switch the lights off, is going to be the most important collective act of connection between people and nature within each event
“The UK’s 46 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are within half an hour’s journey time for the majority of people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Green Space Dark Skies will give people a truly once in a lifetime experience and the opportunity to develop their own relationship with the nationally valued landscapes on their doorstep.
"The AONB family is thrilled to be part of Green Space Dark Skies, a project committed to opening up spaces for people while protecting nature. We hope that the Lumenators will continue to return to their AONBs, benefitting from the peace and rootedness that comes with a deep connection with place, and become the environmental guardians of the future.”
To protect these amazing places, the exact locations will only be revealed to the people who have registered to take part. There will be no spectators, but anyone can take part for free as long as they sign up in advance and everyone can watch the films of each event online.
If you'd like to take part, you can find out how here.