Speed of Light!

NVA’s Speed of Light, a night time event that took place for the first time in England, from Thursday 21, Friday 22 and Saturday 23 March 2013 from 8pm-9pm apparently nearly 750 volunteers were involved throughout the course of the event and had trained for over a month to prepare for the hour long jog. Each night the runners were dressed in LED lighting suits and ran around the public spaces around The Lowry, IWM North (part of Imperial War Museums) and MediaCityUK, home of the University of Salford and BBC North, with punctured choreographed patterns with a specially commissioned audio accompaniment setting the scene.

It was freezing! But totally worth it, everyone created a futurist walk around the Quays that really animated the local architecture and made me feel like I was in Tron. It must have taken some considerable prep and commitment from the volunteers. The activity itself is a great case for health and arts working together to provide a fun and exciting experience for audience which created by local community involvement.

 

 

The project itself has previously been staged as part of the Edinburgh International Festival 2012 and on the docklands of Yokohama in Japan. There was a lot of press using long exposure techniques to great beautiful images, I just have a camera phone but I managed to get similar results with the night time setting and giving my camera a little shak- loads cheaper!  Follow this link though to see how it truly should be viewed!

Here is a couple of clips from the event itself