Borealis, a Festival of Light... and Much, Much More

What is the best way to start off the beginning to long, dark days ahead now that summer is over?  How about celebrating at a Light Festival?  That's what Bruce and I did last night and we loved it.  We attended the United States' first international video projection mapping competition that was held here in Seattle at South Lake Union (SLU).  And it was awesome.

What is video projection mapping, you ask?  Good question.  Apparently, it is very popular in Europe.  You need interesting architecture to make it work and then you need a big space in front of the big piece of architecture to view it.

  Europe has both with all their ample walking space all over the place and all that amazing architecture.  Fortunately, we also have a place like that here at MOHAI's (Museum of History and Industry) with it's 5,000-square-foot facade and plentiful grassy standing space in front of it.

 I've written about SLU in 2015 when we celebrated Lauren's birthday at a favorite restaurant there called Portage Bay Cafe.  There are sooooooo many good places to eat at SLU because that is where Amazon is and they must feed all those 6,000 employees who work in the offices at SLU, you know.  But once you navigate around all the Amazon construction going on, I've always enjoyed that neighborhood. Which is another reason why selecting this location for the first show in the U.S was picked here - it's the hub for technology and art.  Paul Allen, a Microsoft founder with Bill Gates and who also owns the Seahawks, has an office here, the Allen Institute (he is a big art collector) and also his MoPop Museum (Museum of Pop Culture) is nearby.  Plus, Seattle is just known as a very artsy community so video projection mapping is most likely to be a success here.  Millions of people attend annually in Europe's largest festival but it hasn't quite caught on in our country.  It is described as watching the building come alive and is just beautiful.  You were suppose to vote for your favorite since they were by competing artists and groups from around the world with only one from the U.S., a Chicago-based artist named George Berlin.  

The festival also included 25 art installations, which were not part of the competition but I enjoyed these just as much at the video projection mapping.  We downloaded an app that provided a 3-D map of SLU showing where all the art displays were located with a detailed description of each one.  Searching the neighborhood for art installations sort of had the feel of a scavenger hunt.  People were walking all over SLU with maps in their hands and then oohing and ahhing.  It was really fun.  Not to mention that we are having incredible weather right now and you just want to be outside to enjoy it.  Here is a photo of one of the displays.  They put LED lights to highlight the bridge and invited visitors to walk along it (which we didn't because it was a major mob scene).

Apparently, the lights changed colors and patterns by sensing the presence of people. (Notice the beautiful moon and Space Needle in the background).  This art installation is suppose to remind us that we are active participants in our environment and that being part of a community allows us to do much more than we can do on our own.  My favorite one was an existing permanent art structure at the Allen Institute called Mirror of Catalan.   

It was two figures sitting face-to-face made of stainless steel.  

They are made of a lot of letters and symbols from various languages.  It was very interesting and beautiful when all lite up at night. 

I also like the trees with eyes called Gossiping Trees.  

Four trees were brought to life and their eyes would follow you wherever you walked. 

They had DMX controlled lighting that went on and off periodically.

These were fun to walk around and watch them react to your presence as if they really were alive.  Here is one called Shape of Mist that was a humble attempt to try and capture the magic of crepuscular rays and mist. Bruce had fun posing for this photo. 

This one was called Cloud.  It reminded us of a giant hornets' nest in a tree.  Actually, it was four thousand ping-pong balls with a programmable light show inside. 

Lots of kids were trying to jump up and touch it but it was strategically placed high enough, of course.  I totally understand wanting to touch it, though. 

It was beautiful when the light show began. 

  This one was Untitled Reflection that was a mirror reflection off acrylic and latex paint and LED lights.

A similar one was called Immemorial that was light reflecting off water released inside a translucent obelisk. The organic patterns stretched and faded as they saturated the geometric monolith. 

The last one we viewed was called Westlake Stethoscope. It was meant to be an opportunity for the audience to find an unlikely place of refuge in the heart of our city.

Chairs were available to sit down and take a moment to listen and breathe while watching an animated heart beat on an industrial wall.  The heart would revolve around while beating at a steady rhyme, the whole thing changing colors.  It was very mesmerizing.  It was a deceptively simple soundscape to create an environment where a moment of respite was possible.  I loved this art walk and the whole Festival of Light and would definitely go again if Seattle ever hosts another one.

  We hadn't really planned to go to this event yesterday but we were downtown because we had tickets to see the Broadway musical Come From Away.   

It was playing at the 5th Avenue Theater which is such a gorgeous venue itself.  And Come From Away is just one of those rare, really special productions that everyone needs to see, in my opinion.  It was so good. It was also nominated for seven Tony awards last year and won for Best Direction of a Musical.  It evoked so many emotions; thrilling, suspense, tragedy, gratitude, sadness, compassion, duty, joy and love.  It's about September 11, 2001 when 38 planes and 7,000 people were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland and were grounded for 5 days until the U.S. airspace was re-opened.  The townspeople took them all in and cared for them and many individual stories of the people were told during the production.  One minute you felt like crying, then laughing, and by the end you felt like you knew all the people so well. They did a wonderful job of telling the story of such a fragile experience for so many people. Go see it if you can!

  I had read in the newspaper about the Borealis, Festival of Light happening on the same day of our tickets and I thought how convenient.  We could go the musical, then have dinner and head down to SLU for the light show (which is actually within walking distance but we rode the trolley just for fun since we never had ridden it).  After the musical, we went for dinner at Din Tai Fung 

a favorite place to eat downtown especially if you feel like dumplings, which we did.  

It's amazing how easy those little morsels go down!  Bruce and I ordered four dishes to share and the two of us ate every bite; chicken dumplings, garlic green beans, rice cakes with shrimp and pork and shrimp pot stickers. 

And a bonus was that we got to sit outside to eat since it was such a nice day.  We had a gap of time to kill since it doesn't get dark until 7:30 pm for the Festival of Light so we hung out for awhile at Duke's at SLU for drinks and dessert.  Bruce ordered carrot cake, his favorite, and shared a little with me. 

So many good things in one day; one of the best Broadway musicals, great art, gorgeous video projection mapping and light displays, excellent food and perfect weather.  Can't ask for much more than that on an October Saturday.  Now I'm ready for the long, dark days of Seattle until next summer.