The Illuminate Festival Plymouth 28th November 2019
One cold damp night in November we went to Plymouth to the Royal William Yard to see the Illuminate Festival.
The Festival is held in the King William Yard, Stonehouse which was originally the place where the victualling for the navy would take place . Built between 1826-1835 and adjacent to The Docks it was released form the MOD in 1992, passed to the Plymouth Development Corporation and on its closure in 1999 was passed to the South West Regional Development Agency. Where between 1999 and 2008 £60 million was spent redeveloping the yard.
I actually worked an exhibition held there in the early 2000's and thought then what an amazing building it was with the huge beams using for the flooring and how solid the buildings were.
The buildings have now been repurposed and there are a good mix of over 70 business which now operate out of the buildings including food outlets. The Yard can be reached by road as well as by sea and there appear to be berthing facilities there too.
This was a free to visit event and drew people of all ages, Families, couples, students like ourselves. It was a great evening with plenty of different illuminations to see and people came streaming into watch it. We separated so we could go and watch what ever we liked but with a time and place to meet. Because this is a very visual event the best way to watch it afterwards is in a video format
There were several interactive pieces at the festival . One close to the Oh Crepe unit ,was a bit screen which when people stood in front to it would project their images onto the screen. This wasn't as a clear image however but rather fuzzy. However I think this was deliberate and everyone enjoyed jumping around I front of it. Which would make them feel involved and part of the festival
The other interactive piece were the portrait frames which were surrounded by LED lights . These only lit up when someone put their face into the frame and then came up in different colours again the public loved this aspect and most of friends or family had their phones out to capture the scene.
Amongst the images here are ones showing the night sky and how Mariners would have used the stars for navigating to the New World and another of the route that the Mayflower would have sailed
One of the inside exhibits with a bit of deliberate blur
Lady dressed for Mayflower 400
Prior to going to the Illuminate Festival we had a walk around the Barbican area and I got too close for my liking to a drunk who collapsed in front of me , how he didn't end in the water was more good luck than judgement . I called a couple of men who were working close by and asked if they could help him sit up, they weren't too keen to help. I did see that an ambulance arrived an I imagine they took him to hospital..
Cycle of Life”, Prize for innovation, International Videomapping Festival in Girona (FIMG). Selected at V International Congress Synesthesia, Science & Art 2015. Interactive Videmapping from live performed classical music.
In CINEMA, Xavi Bové has directed documentaries about music such as “Music of Shapes” about new musical theories by Raúl Quílez; he has been the second unit director of the documentary film “Llach, la revolta permanent” by Lluis Danés about the life of a Catalan singer; he directed the recording of “Tranuites”, a visual theatre and circus project; and he also directed more than 10 shortfilms, including the film festivals selected “Eine Neue Nachricht” (fiction), “Requiem für eine Tanne” (video creation), “Mala Sombra” (fiction) and “Viure al mar” (documentary). He worked as art director on “Final”.
He TEACHES seminaries and master’s classes about relations between music and image, for institutions such as La Salle University and EMAV audiovisual school in Barcelona. He also worked for three years as a workshops and films curator for the REC Film Festival (Tarragona). Xavi has lived and worked in Barcelona, London and Berlin and nowadays is based in Girona (Spain).
Currently he is working on different projects that bridge these art disciplines, combining his experience and knowledge and playing with the experimentation of languages, formats and interactivity.
In the interview he speaks about CYCLE of LIFE, his interactive videomapping Prize for innovation, Girona Festival. Selected at V International Congress Synesthesia, Science & Art 2015. Interactive Videmapping from live performed classical music.
Ali Pym / Studio Manager
Ali has worked in Film Education, Project Management and Film Programming throughout the last 10 years. As a Lecturer in Film and Media Production in Devon and most recently Hong Kong, Ali has mentored young filmmakers to understand this form of visual storytelling and hone their own directorial voices. With a passion for Independent Film, Short Film, Expanded Cinema and Video Installation she has co-managed the commissioning and programming of Two Short Nights Film Festival as well as developing Film Festivals, Seasons and Immersive cinematic events with support from the BFI Film Audience Network and the Independent Cinema Office. Ali now manages the Preston Street Films Studio, working with the team to guide projects from idea development through to exhibition.
https://prestonstreetfilms.com/portfolio/studio-manager/
Xavi Bové,
Born in Lleida (Spain) in 1978, he is an image and sound engineer, and widened his studies with a video direction postgraduate and a master on digital audiovisual creation. Along his seven years as an OPERA VIDEO DIRECTOR of more than 30 titles in Gran Teatre del Liceu Opera House in Barcelona, he has been exploring different ways to show the opera drama in audiovisual language, giving the audience the chance to enjoy opera in a cinematographic way, and acquiring big international opera panorama knowledge. He has directed live broadcastings for TV, Internet and Cinemas worldwide in High Definition, and also the first 3D opera live broadcasting in Spain. Several titles are available on DVD worldwide under high quality labels such as Virgin Classics, DECCA, Arthaus-Musik, C-Major, Opus Arte, Unitel, TDK and Euroarts.
Xavi has directed VIDEO MAPPING projects, applied over different kind of surfaces, such as buildings, trees, planes, balloons or bodies, and is the ARTISTIC DIRECTOR of FIMG, International Mapping Festival in Girona (www.fimg.cat).
He has been commissioned for creating ARTISTIC CORPORATE and ADVERTISING CLIPS combining the needs of companies with a sensitive approach.
He has been art director for live concerts creating LIVE VISUALS and combining stage design, video-creation and mapping techniques, for bands such as Fon Roman, Guillamino and dÉbruit, and for festivals such as Connexions and DeProp.
Xavi Bové is responsible of the visual area on ENVOLVENT, an events promoter and communication/booking agency specialized in electronic music and visual arts, with a weekly radio program (www.envolvent.com). And is also co-founder of FAVOLA IN MVSICA, which aims to give high-quality solutions both for live broadcasting and creative video recording and post-production, mainly focused on classical music.
For MUSIC FESTIVALS he has been the director of live broadcasting and live internet streaming for SONAR Festival and Summercase Music Festival. He has directed MUSIC VIDEOS for electronic and pop bands, (Undo, Maurice Aymard, Gui Boratto, The Moustaches,…) and was the cinematographer for a music video for the Berlin Fashion Week. He has also directed live music concerts recordings for DVDs, such as for the rock musicians Bunbury & Vegas. He also plays tunes as aMUSIC SELECTOR for special events under the name of HERR BOVE offering Vintage and Electronic Sets.
Taken from their info and an interview as most of the info in Xavi was in Spanish .
The lighting was amazing and of course so it should have been, music and sound was added to the projections to make it more immersive. I don't know if I had a favourite amongst the installations as each one was quite different from the last. I saw a Mayflower Ship appear and disappear from view I think some one was on a bicycle and riding around with the ship. I tried to follow but it vanished .
I think perhaps we could have got to the site maybe earlier as I am sure that we missed some of the exhibits. I didn't see the one in the cooperage and couldn't work out if the queue for one building was to see an exhibit or just people waiting to go and eat.
I think had we had more time before we went I would have researched it better but with so much work load for the filming and such big crowds when we got there I think maybe I missed some of the best bits. There was also another site with installations as well but you needed to catch the ferry to get there. It would have been good to arrive in daylight as I think it would allowed us to get the measure of the site and plan where we wanted to go when it was dark and the lights started. The site was also wet because of rain and it wasn't always easy to see where the cable were running across the road, although they were protected it was possible to trip over them.
Information for the Illuminate was available on line and also advertised on Local radio
View of the Barbican are a before we went to King William Yard. This year is the 400th year anniversary of the Pilgrim Fathers sailing to the New World and the steps from where they left have been refurbished
Various views of the Barbican area of Plymouth including the Mayflower Pilgrim Father steps which have been refurbished for the Mayflower 400 event this year. This old area of Plymouth has an Elizabethan House which is open to the public and still has an active fish market and apparently more cobbled streets than anywhere else in the country
Although I enjoyed the Illuminate very much I don't know how much influence it will have on my upcoming work, as I don't anticipate I will be doing any projection work or video for my exhibition .
The layout of the show was very determined by the space and the availability of empty buildings and being able to use open spaces . The only trouble to some degree was getting across the wet grass to see the Garden installation , although there were paths leading there. It was busy I would say that there was a happy vibe there people were definitely enjoying themselves and the fact that it was a free to visit event was even better.
I think that the projections onto the main building as you walked in were certainly a crowd stopper as many people stopped and watched as the projections told a story and the tree which grew it branches, it was all very clever . I liked the projections out of the marina area and noticed the Mayflower . There will be a significant interest in the Mayflower as 2020 is the 400th Birthday of the departure from the Mayflower steps on the Barbican.
I loved the openness of this event, I liked it being night time as I think the lights heighten the darkness around you .People were enjoying themselves from young to old . The unexpectedness of the what would happen next with the projected lights and what you would find around the corner in the next vast shed . The garden with the same image but changing colour and trying to understand what it was saying to you.
What I did fine interesting was the tunnel where we all herded ourselves down it like sheep and watched the colours changed to find that it actually didn't lead anywhere and was the connection between the land and the sea and had there not been a couple of people at the end saying don't go any further you might have landed in the waters of Plymouth Sound.
It would have been good to see the other events on the different sites, but I feel that we came away with a good idea of what can be done. I don't think however the projected lighting will play a part in what I was intending to do and with the present situation of lockdown might hamper intentions of going out to take photographs or video.
There was plenty of advertising on the radio and I have a site called Visit Plymouth I believe which sends me regular emails with all upcoming events. I had also been to the progression day at Plymouth University and discussed it with the Lead Tutor there as the University was going to have an exhibit there. I don't know if I actually saw there exhibit.
With this exhibit there was plenty of room to move around so everyone could get a good look at the displays and as they were repeated if you missed it the 1st time then you could go and watch the next time around.It was very good good humoured event.