On 21 February, I and my friend attended the event called ‘White Night’ in City. This year, we decided to meet up with other international students through Study Melbourne, and participated in the tour conducted by them.
Around 8pm, the sun was still in the sky, but was about to set. The view from Southbank was beautiful, but I was very disappointed as I had to catch the train and go back home before 9pm, and I had no time to look around the city.
The tour headed to NGV, to see the light installation called ‘Keyframes‘ by Groupe Laps – Thomas Veyssiere. When I saw the photograph on White Night website, those plastic bodies were placed in the street, but it was located above the water in front of NGV, which gave a new effect of reflection to the artwork. Those plastic bodies were taking different poses and waiting to be switched on to light up. As I see the quick transition of lighting up and going off, I associated this artwork with hand-written animation or a flick book as those bodies may be representing each frame of animation, that they become a movement if they light up as a sequence, otherwise they are just still objects (that is probably why this work is called ‘Keyframes’!). The another element of this installation was the sound accompanying the visual movement. There was classic, dance music, sound effect of fighting, etc. I was fascinated as those bodies could show different aspects of human bodies’ movements and expressions, by having different sound/music.
In Federation Square, the virtual, visual effects performance ‘Vox Lumen: People Into Light’ by Deakin Motion Lab (John Mccormick, Peter Divers, Steph Hutchison and Kim Vincs) was on. On the stage, there was a person with a number of sensors which allowed computer to recognise his movement and project the movement by coloured lights on a black background. There was also the virtual effect of colours surrounding him which created an unrealistic environment on the screen. The contrast between a person on the stage and the light on the screen proved the high level of technology which allowed artists to develop the aesthetic quality of light and movement from human body movement.
It was a shame to leave City before it gets dark, and I enjoy projection mappings and other artworks. Next year (or a year after), hopefully I can stay at city a bit longer and explore the different face of city at night.
Saran Kim | Blog 