Light Night projects

A project was developed to work with young people with special educational needs (SEN) to create a digital installation to be shown as part of Nottingham's annual Light Night Festival which traditionally takes place in February each year. 

Local digital artist Bec Smith, from Urban Projections, worked with groups of students from Foxwood Academy, a specialist SEN school based in Nottingham, to create an installation using water vapour screens. The students created the designs which were then digitised and projected onto the water vapour. 

The interactive installation was on display on Friday 8 February 2019 at St. Mary's Church.

Take a look at the video below to see how the project unfolded...

In the second year of the project digital artist Bec Smith, returned to Foxwood Academy to work with a new group of students to create the artwork for the installation. This was shown at the Light Night festival on Friday 7 February 2020. 

Take a look at the video below which shows the workshops taking place at Foxwood to create the artwork ready for digitisation...

States of Matter: the Light Night installation due to take place in year 3 was unfortunately unable to go ahead due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, States of Matter returned in year 4 instead!

States of Matter was a stunning immersive experience, which filled the whole architecture of St Mary’s church, in Nottingham’s historic Lace Market, with synchronised light, sound and visual effects.

It questions our fragile relationship with water, whilst examining its natural cycle. With a predicted 4-degree shift in global temperatures over the next 80 years, polar ice caps are set to irreversibly melt, and global sea levels rise to dangerous levels, presenting one of the greatest challenges to humanity. Water connects us all.

States of Matter was created in a synergy between multimedia artist Urban Projections, and composer & sound designer CJ Mirra. Additional field recordings from the Arctic, Antarctic and the Humboldt Current, in the Pacific Ocean, are supplied by internationally renowned location recordist and sonic artist, Chris Watson, whose work includes the David Attenborough series ‘Frozen Planet’.

The artists collaborated with young people from Nottinghamshire, in a co-creation process from which their thoughts and ideas became articulated into the final artwork. The discussions enabled dialogue and encouraged conversation into global warming, water poverty and the interconnectedness of the atmosphere, earth and ocean, through the water cycle. The young people also took part in a series of workshops creating audio samples and recordings from their surroundings, in response to the theme. These were then woven together with the field recordings from Chris, into a subliminal sonic score by CJ Mirra.

Artists: Urban Projections & CJ Mirra. Co-Creation: Newark Emmaus Trust, IYA Home Education Group, Portland College, Harlow Academy, IYA Music group: Ethan Mckenna, Ellie May Eales, Joshua Todd, Jack Todd, Leo Dawson, Scarlett Marsden, Nathan Owen. Field Recordings: Chris Watson. Commissioned by: Inspire Youth Arts. Technical Partners: Sterling Events. Project Management: Rachel Fletcher

On Friday 3 and Saturday 4 February, Inspire Youth Arts once again took over St Mary’s Church in Nottingham with their Light Night installation: Re-Move, attracting over 7636 people over the weekend.

Re-Move is an immersive sound and light installation exploring the human consequences of climate change and disaster displacement. It filled the beautiful architecture of St Mary’s church with an evolving journey of synchronised light and sound.

‘Climate change is the defining crisis of our time, and disaster displacement one of its most devastating consequences. Entire populations are being displaced due to slow onset environmental processes such as drought, wildfire, sea-level rise, shoreline erosion, flooding, and agricultural disruption.

Re-Move is an engaging and abstract reflection on the journeys taken by those affected, the human impact, and the action and inaction of how we are dealing with this all-encompassing crisis.’

Artist Urban Projections, and Composer and Sound Designer CJ Mirra, continued their collaborative journey, co-creating this year’s installation with Inspire Youth Arts and young people from across Nottinghamshire, for Nottingham Light Night 2023. Visitors also enjoyed performances from the St Mary’s Choir on Friday 4 February.

The piece is a continuation of work from Light Night 2022 where ‘States of Matter’ explored the effects of climate change on our planet’s fragile relationship with water. Building on last year’s scientific lines of enquiry, this year’s work explored the human consequence of the climate crisis.

Re-move was created in collaboration with Dr Tom Vickers, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University and author of Borders, Migration and Class in an Age of Crisis (2019, Bristol University Press). It draws inspiration, and uses audio samples, from Tom’s work with refugees in the UK.

Credits

Commissioned by: Inspire Youth Arts

Artists: Urban Projections & CJ Mirra

Co-Creation: Yeoman Park Academy & Proto-Type

Workshop Lead: Tom Shawcroft

Partner: Dr Tom Vickers (Associate Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University)

Technical Partner: Sterling Event Group

Audio Samples: Courtesy of Dr Tom Vickers & Nkosilathi Nyathi: A next-generation solution to the climate crisis | TED - Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non-Commercial–No Derivatives.

With thanks to: St Mary’s Church

Photo credits: Leo Dawson and Neil Pledger

Funded by Inspire Culture, Learning and Libraries, Arts Council England, Nottinghamshire Music Education Hub, and Peoples Health Trust.

On Friday 2 and Saturday 3 February 2024, Inspire Youth Arts’ Light Night Installation Standing Ground, was presented at St. Mary’s Church, Nottingham bringing in audiences of 5250 over two incredible evenings. 

Standing Ground showcased stunning light projections and immersive sound created from field recordings taken on the historic Welbeck Estate in North Nottinghamshire. Artists Urban Projections and CJ Mirra worked with young people from Aebal Mental Health and Autism Support and Prototype Collective, to explore our relationship with the natural world.

Standing Ground is the third part of a triptych of work, exploring our relationship to the natural world through the lens of a changing climate. This follows States of Matter (2022) and Re-Move (2023). 

Artists - Urban Projections & CJ Mirra  

Ecologist - Simon Pickles  

Zine Artist - Harry Hempsall  

Spoken Word: Seth Hughes - @urfromere  

Co-Creation:  

Aebal - Morgan Stocks, Tony Dickinson, Robert Rusk, Jack Watson, Dan Hill.  Support: Jason Bradley & Joseph Lyons  

Proto-Type Collective - Eseose Okotako, Casey Francis, Lina Vourlou, Jenson Brown, Leo Dawson, Poppy Hewett, Harry Hempsall.  Support: Brendon Gravell  

Produced by Jon Bevan  

Partners:  

Harley Foundation  

North & East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre  

Produced & commissioned by Inspire Youth Arts  

Funded by Arts Council England  

Technical Partners - Sterling Event Group  

With thanks to: The Welbeck Estate, St Mary’s Church