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- People , The University
- 12/11/2020
Route of GLOW 2021 will go across TU/e campus again
The physical form of GLOW has been canceled this year, but next year the light festival will return - and it will come to our campus too, as it is a TU/e lustrum year. The exact route across the campus is not yet known, but student team IGNITE is already busy preparing for a light installation for next year.
The team members cannot reveal the concepts yet, unfortunately. “But we sure can mention some key words,” says Lynn Visser, secretary of IGNITE. “Immersive art. That means that you blend in with your environment. Interactivity with the installation. We want people to be able to lose themselves in the experience. Collaboration: we want our installation to encourage people to work together, to have them do something together. And that must be more than just pressing some buttons.”
Team IGNITE started out as a committee of study associations Lucid and CHEOPS, which has resulted in the installations Loop and Hypar. IGNITE is sad about the cancellation of GLOW 2020, especially given the success of Hypar in 2019. But they are already busy with a brainstorm about what to come up with for 2021. “We are now in a battle of concepts, a race in which we started with ten possible concepts,” says Tim de Jong, IGNITE’s team manager. “At the moment, we have seven left that we are developing further. In January 2021, we will organize a mid-term event where we invite the public to give feedback on the last two or three concepts.”
Using light to communicate
In September 2020, the second generation of team IGNITE was formed. “We are now a team of ten,” De Jong says. It is a multidisciplinary student team with the aim to investigate how light technology can be used to create engagement in groups. To facilitate that, they make interactive light installations that provide entertainment at major events. “Light is one of the most valuable ways to communicate. It tells you whether it is day or night. If you see a cooler color of light, you also experience a room as being colder. Light affects your perception. We want to use that for engagement. GLOW is not only a nice showcase for us, but also an opportunity to test our installation with a large audience,” Visser explains.
Corona-safe installation
Should corona also be taken into account as a potential threat in 2021? “Of course nobody knows what the situation will be like then,” De Jong says. “But we do keep a 'one-and-a-half-meter concept’ in mind when designing. We prefer to make a 'one-and-a-half-meter concept’ than to do something online. When we finalize the concept in January, we hope to attract more new members, about twenty would be great. In particular, we need many electronic circuit builders to help build the installation. But students who are already enthusiastic, can also contact IGNITE.”
GLOW 2020
From November 7 until 14, 2020 it should have been the go-to event: GLOW 2020 through Eindhoven city center and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, this is not possible due to corona. An alternative form has been found for the light festival in these dark days: the GLOW Dots. Everyone is invited to make a dot (a luminous box) with a wish or proverb and hang it in front of the window. In practice, mostly schools respond to this call, as they have been sent craft packages, although you can also pick up a free package yourself at the Eindhoven Shopper.
A couple of days ago, a blue light could be seen throughout the city, and there were red balloons hanging all over town, our campus included. It is not yet known if GLOW is behind this.
GLOW 2021 will take place from November 6 until 13, 2021.
Update: The GLOW organization has submerged the city of Eindhoven is a blue glow, starting Thursday November 12th. You can watch the (recorded) live stream.
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