WONDERL AND
Royal Mile
Edinburgh Lumiere
The festival will be designed on the approach of creating a platform for illuminating and engaging with problematic spaces in Old Town Edinburgh during the months of January and February 2015. Image taken By Rebecca Wilson
The small narrow closes of the Old Town will be infused will colour and sound taking you and your imagination on a spiral frenzy. Carrying the audience through a magical world letting people escape their everyday lives into a world of the unknown.
Image taken By Rebecca Wilson
Working alongside Edinburgh World Heritage this festival is to help recreate the once vibrant hot spot of Edinburgh that over the years has lost its appeal to the vast majority of its city, into a place of light and fun helping bring back the popularity of Old Town Edinburgh.
Image taken off of Edinburgh World Heritage Siite
Royal Mile 2014 Taken by Rebecca Wilson
Background Research Edinburgh Lumiere is open to all who want to go on an adventure. For those willing to let their curiosity lead them through the inner workings of Edinburgh and allow their imagination to have control then this festival will awaken their senses. The concept behind using “Alice and Wonderland” was inspired by the quote said by Alice “If I had a world of my own, everything would be full of nonsense.” The quote became inspiring as it highlighted the idea of creating a new world filled with weird and wonderful things and it being accepted. Similar to what Edinburgh Lumiere is based on- creating something using the environment surrounding it and having people interact with the festival is allowing it to be accepted by the community. The rationale behind the festival is to help bring people back to the Old Town of Edinburgh. Throughout the year Edinburgh is filled with locals and tourists but during the months of January and February there is a dip in the multicultural events within the Edinburgh. The Lumiere festival is to attract people back to the Old Town of Edinburgh during these quiet months.
Looking into Alice and Wonderland I read a quote from the book “Alice in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll and became inspired by two quotes. “If I had a world of my own everything would be full of nonsense”-Alice “You can’t help us...We are all mad here”- The Cheshire Cat These two quotes helped focus on what the festival would be based upon. Looking more into the theme of Alice and Wonderland I wanted to section each key point that would be highlighted within the festival from the characters, to the sound and from the general appearance of the festival.
The Character Aspect Through the festival I want people to be curious as to what is happening much like Alice when she arrives in wonderland. However through this journey other aspects of Wonderland will make to question if what is happening is actually real. It’ll drive you mad. Not only incorporating these aspects I want the audience to feel like they are in Wonderland. Having objects come to live before their very eyes, having things interact with audience making them feel like anything could happen.
The Sound Using music will help enhance the flow of the festival and will open more of the imagination of thge audinence alongside the light installations. The sound will be tailored to every close as each one will be capturing a differnet visual element. I envison the sound being very mystical with a darker tone in some of the closes. The audience have to this sense of being in a place so magical that the music only slightly noticeable. However once journeying more into wonderland starnger things start to happen and the music becomes more intense that is well aware to the viewer and creates this feeling that things are only going to get weirder.
General Appearance The appearance of the festival is to have this idea that the audience is travelling through Wonderland. Seeing all the weird things Alice seen but in a more subtle way-the things the audeince see won’t be an exact replica of Alice and Wonderland but they will get the sense that that is where they are.
Call for Designers/Artists who want to work in a crazy world and allow their imagination to take over! Email the Creator - Rebecca_Wilson6@msn.com If you think you are mad enough.
Inspiration As well as the Alice and wonderland theme I became inspired with the light festival “Enchanted Forest.” After seeing it a couple of years ago the mystical lights and the stories being told have always stuck with me. Including this as inspiration I think will help drive thr Edinburgh Lumiere “Wonderland” Festival in 2015.
The Enchanted Forest was nothing but short of mesmerising. The colours and efffects used enhanced the stories being told and allowing the audience to be carrying on a journey. This is somehthing that will be key in Edinburgh Lumiere.
Map view of Edinburgh Royal MIle
Location Location was key in finding the right place for hosting Edinburgh Lumiere. The closes chosen will play a role in the festival as gateways for people to move through each one systematically.
Sketchbook Planning
The planning process starts with a sketchbook. This is where a designer can collect his/her ideas and do a collabration of work before settling on a final concept. Throughout the sketchbook process the concept of Alice and Wonderland was becoming a stronger attribute to the festival thus becoming the chosen theme for Edinburgh Lumiere 2015.
As part of the planning process a close was chosen to make a small to scale model . This helping see what works best within a small proximity. It gives the designer a chance to experiment and play with the close without actually having to travel to the Royal Mile. The photographs above are from a model of “Fountain Close” one of the featured closes within the “Wonderland” festival.
Digital Platform Branding To help advertise and brand this festival an APP will be created giving people an insight of what the festival is about and how the festival will be spread out throughout the closes of Old Town Edinburgh. The APP will be free download and can be used before, during and after the festival as this festival will be an annual event.
The APP will be something the users can interact with by putting on their personally experiences into the APP allowing new audiences to see reviews and what others thought about the festival. Throughout the festival some of the light shows there will interaction with the audience. Within in some of the closes weird flowers will appear and follow the viewer suggesting that the plants have came to life- similar to what happens in Alice and Wonderland.
Proposed Materials The flyers create above will be used in either two ways. The image in the top left and the image bottom right will be seperate flyers with the middle image as the backing allowing people to read the information about the festival.
The second flyer will be a mini booklet having the top image as the front cover the centre image as the inside of the booklet and the bottom right image being the image. This allowing people to play with the booklet as well as showcasing Edinburgh lumiere.
To promote the festival posters and flyers will be distributed throughout the city of Edinburgh and across the Lothian’s and throughout Glasgow. Widening the promotional aspects and moving out with Edinburgh will bring in more people to this experience and open up their minds to something different.
Posters will be distibuted throughout Edinburgh,West Loithian and Glasgow to promote the festival and to wide the knowledge of what is happening with Old Town Edinburgh.
Project Plan The project plan is very important when creating something this vast and this technological. A time plan will help insure that everything works to a schedule and everyone who is working on the projects knows what they are doing and when they are doing it. Edinburgh Lumiere is showcasing in 2015 however the finishing of the concept and the presenting of the festival to Edinburgh World Heritage will be at the start of April 2014.
January Sketchbook Development Final Project Present
Time is Everything!
February
March
April
DEADLINE 1ST APRIL
Experimentation As an experiment to see how light effetcs would work in the actual closes I used photography to overlay images and create this effect that the patterns are light. Using fairylights I photographed them in different shapes. I then using photoshop placed them over some original images I took throughout my reaserch. Changing the colours i was able to see what colours worked and what did not.
Using this experiment I was able to see how I could project the lights and what would work. As an experimenting I tried swapping the image to create this effect of the light projecting on the wall instead of on the sides of the close.
Playing with the images this shows how projecting on both the walls and on the floor would work for the Edinburgh Lumiere.
Experimenting with the images again helped show how the ligths would look if projected along the walls and on top of the ceilings within the close. Creating this capsule of light within a close off the streets of Old Town Edinburgh.
EDINBURGH LUMIERE- “Wonderland” 2015
“If I had a world of my own everything would be full of nonsense”
Created by Rebecca Wilson