If you still have not heard of iLight Marina Bay by now, I cannot help but ask, “Where have you been??!”
This festival is the only sustainable light art festival in Asia, and it showcases innovation, intelligent use of lighting as well as an international line-up of creative talents. There are a total of 28 installations this year, and I have to say that I am mightily impressed with what’s been put together. Not only were the installations ingenious with clever use of lights and angles, interactive elements have been infused into some of them, which is the reason why kids would totally love them. Mine had a ball of time exploring each and every one of them!
Most of my friends who explored the entire trail of 28 installations took 2.5 to 3 hours. If you plan to cover the trail in two trips, I recommend that you start at Marina Bay Sands, which is somewhat like the centre point. If you have kids with you, you might enjoy the trail from MBS towards Raffles Place MRT station more (Trail A), because there are some very adorable installations on this trail, with lots of interactive play elements that will bound to thrill the kids.
I enjoyed the other half of the trail from MBS towards Esplanade (Trail B) too because every installation was so cleverly designed with ingenious ways of projecting light to create interesting effects. I love how artistic and creative the installations were – Such a refreshing touch to the busy city life that we all live everyday. If you would like to know more about the installations, you can click and read all about them here. Among the 28 installations, these made to my list of Top 5 installations at iLight Marina Bay 2014 that the kids would absolutely love:
1. The Wishing! Tree
Location: Marina Bay Sands, side entrance of Marina Bay Shoppes (A2)
There is a tree in Hong Kong where people go to with their wishes and prayers written on paper and tied with a long string to a stone to be swung onto the tree. The people believe that their wishes will come through if they are able to swing it onto the tree successfully at the first time. This installation at iLight takes on a similar idea, except that instead of stones, the paper of wishes are tied to LED blue lights instead. We had so much fun swinging our wishes onto the tree again and again – It’s really not that easy!
Joey took the wish-writing very seriously. She even asked me how to spell ‘Happiness’. What wisdom in such a little kid – haha!
2. Cloud
Location: The Float @ Marina Bay (B9)
I love how artistic this is. The sculpture is created from both new and recycled materials, combining the aesthetic of incandescent light bulbs with the brilliance of energy-efficient bulbs.
There are beaded strings everywhere and you can have fun pulling one to see which bulb lights up!
This is a winner among the kids – They went around pulling and tugging at every string they see!
And if you step back, you can see the real essence behind the title of the installation. The beaded strings resemble raindrops – And I love how everyone’s looking up, thus illuminating their faces. The various elements combine to form such a powerful image!
3. The Pool
Location: Marina Bay waterfront promenade, near The Promontory @ Marina Bay (A14)
This must be the kids’ favorite. The pool is a group of giant, concentric circles created from interactive circular pads. When different ones step and run around the pads, different colors and lights are created, making the whole installation look like a giant canvas. This installation is best enjoyed and is most beautiful when a group of people play with the different pads together.
As you can see, even the adults couldn’t resist running around and jumping from pad to pad!
4. Celebration of Life
Location: ArtScience Museum
This is a 3D projection installation on the facade of ArtScience Museum that celebrates Asian values in our modern society through a tongue-in-cheek manner. The projection show runs once every 15 minutes starting from 8.15pm to 10.45pm, and the best spot to catch the show is on the Helix Bridge.
See how the ArtScience Museum was transformed when the show began!
5. Joujou-Ours
Location: Beside Marina Bay City Gallery (A9)
This is such a cute installation that it’s almost impossible to miss it.
Inspired by childhood memories of hugging soft toys to sleep, Joujou-Ours is an installation that encourages all to come close and embrace these light installations, and with these close physical interactions, the embedded lights will create a magical kaleidoscope of colours. They are like huge bouncy balloons and even without being told, all the kids couldn’t resist but give the bears big hugs!
I like the message that the curator wants to bring out through this installation, and that is interactive arts should not just be about the technology – it should reflect simple acts to express love. :)
These are my recommendations of Top 5 installations that every kid will surely love, but don’t miss out the other installations of course. Each and every one is a great and creative idea.
Colorful balls that change colors upon touch – Not only are they fun to play with, they make such a pretty sight at night.
Giant Dandelions – You would never have guessed that the beautiful dandelions were made out of recycled plastic bottles, did you?
Jayne took one look at this and could tell it’s a crocodile. It’s that obvious?!
Light that changes color formation based on movement detection – Pretty dreamy for the kids when they get under it because they look like stars in the sky.
Giant silver sheet that reflects the colorful skyline behind us!
Mimosa – Fun installation that moves and changes lighting based on movement. The gentle and soft movements of the plates are lovely to watch.
I love the colors & composition of this installation – It looks especially good on photos!
Interestingly, this simple and non-interactive installation made every one who passed by it giggle. And I am quite sure many actually go spy the ground beneath it to see if there was any ‘gold’ buried there.
If you get hungry while enjoying iLight, fret not! Pasarbella has set up a pop-up store in front of MBS, selling all kinds of good food. The smell is irresistible when you walk past it! You can also enjoy some cold beer while enjoying the beautiful night scenery of Singapore. :)
The best time to start enjoying the iLight is from 7.30pm every night because that’s when it gets dark enough and the installations are best lit up. If you haven’t caught the festival yet, make sure you pop by before it ends on 30 March. It’s a really interesting festival not to be missed!
