See the stars brighten up the darkest sky, have the street lamps
illuminate the pavement below and now see the streaks of runners
shine out across Edinburgh's closest mountain.
Arthur’s Seat is to show off a mixture of sporting endeavour
and performative visual art, as runners wearing special light suits
will create a specially choreographed ascent whilst the audience
walks up to the sightseeing summit.
As part of the Edinburgh International Festival,
NVA, a registered Scottish
Charity that creates award-winning, dynamic, powerful, and public
works of art, has created a festival performance called the
Speed of
Light. With the aim of investigating the physical
and emotional aspects of endurance running, as well as redefining
the landscape, Creative Director Angus Farquhar hopes to create a
sense of ownership and long-lasting memory upon the articulated
terrain making its way up to the peek.
Funded by Creative
Scotland, Speed of Light is
one of only four national projects, commissioned as part of
Legacy trust UK’s Community
Celebrations programme, which aims to build a lasting legacy to
the 2012 London Olympic and
Paralympic games.
If you are a beginner or intermediate
endurance runner and want to test your mind over matter, or a
walker and someone that loves getting involved in visual works of
art, then the NVA invites people to participate,
offering special training packages along with registration, with
accessibility for as many people as possible. They have even
included a specially designed route for wheelchair athletes wearing
specifically designed light suits.
Speed of Light will
run over the length of Edinburgh’s International Festival from
9th August to 2nd September, with tickets
going on sale via Hub Tickets from
March. It should prove to be something like no other, a great
achievement of the creativity and endeavour of people, and a
contender to the ever popular firework light show of the Royal Edinburgh Military
Tattoo.
I like to think of it as like Tron, only in
the real world!
Update: Rehearsals are now well underway for Speed of Light
which kicks off the Edinburgh International Festival in less than a
month. The first full “Super Sunday” trial with the finished light
suits happened at the end of April. It was an exciting and electric
moment for the organisers who have spent two years rigorously
planning, designing and prototyping the project. As the sun set,
producing one of Edinburgh’s famous deep pink and purples skies,
the runners’ lights began to stand out against the darkening
Arthur’s Seat – boding well for the big kick off in August. As well
as trialling the light suits, the first energy-harvesting lights
staffs which will be walked to the summit by the ticketed audience
have been tested. 800 people a night moving in groups of 100 over 3
hours will create a flickering line of lights swinging forward and
backwards as they ascend and descend the hill.
If you want to be involved in what promises to
be an iconic landmark during this year’s Festival season in
Edinburgh, audience tickets are available for £24/£18 from http://www.eif.co.uk/speedoflight.
If you would like to run in the event, reserve lists are open for
sign up at http://speedoflight2012.org.uk/
NVA’s Speed of Light at Edinburgh
International Festival 2012 eif.co.uk/speedoflight Photos: Euan Myles
