guerrilla lighting

Not content with one guerrilla lighting event Beersneilsen carried out a second guerrilla lighting mission

They said:

“… this time with less children…but some little children that were still fascinated by the torches…. a bit more coordinated working with the residents of an area in the West of Rotterdam.”

The Burgemeester Meineszplein has been an area that for a long time has struggled with a bad image due to drug related problems, poverty and so on. Permanently closed shops gave the area a deserted look. But mainly thanks to resident initiatives the area has been revitalized. To celebrate these steps made by the residents some festivities were organized in the evening of the 26th of November.

During the lighting guerrilla that was organized, the residents were invited to put there achievements in the spotlights using large torches, like for example the green traffic roundabout, the façade of a renovated and reused building. During this event the buildings that could offer new entrepreneurs opportunities were lit from inside in a blue-green color, in that way both the achievements and the opportunity’s were clearly shown to the people of the area.

Its taken us a long time to get this on web site – but we hope you agree its worth the wait!  The Dutch Dynamic Duo of Sjoerd van Beers and Juliette Nielsen – the brains behind beersnielsen lichtontwerpers - have sent us the results of not one but two guerrilla lighting events!

Their first Guerrilla lighting action was in Rotterdam in the Spangen area as part of the opening of a new square “Bellamyplein” and we’re sure you’re going to like the results.

They blatantly disregarded half of the classic rule – never work with children and animals – and the action was participated by the residents and most of all the neighbourhood kids.

They said “From social point of view the action was a success – everybody had a great time playing with the torches and especially playing football with the mirror ball on the pitch.

For us as lighting designers, it was a tough job to coordinate the action and to get the desired coherent light scenario we prepared….. most of the kids were there without parental supervisions and were hard to direct  - some improvisation had to be done.”

Well we think it looks great and we love the idea of kids playing football with a mirror ball!  There’s an art installation in there somewhere!

Those cheeky Finnish Guerrillas are back and this time the idea was to introduce new ways of analysing lighting for existing built environment. The task was to search ways of shedding new light on the Helsinki City Theatre and its surroundings. This guerrilla spectacle was part of the official Helsinki World Design Capital 2012 programme and was endorced by city municipalities in charge of future renovation of the site.

For more images follow the link to their facebook page!

The Social Light Movement has just held its second workshop – this town in one of the suburbs of Stockholm – a housing estate in the area of Hjulsta.  Catch up with the action on Facebook here.

The point of the workshop: to get lighting designers out of the office and into the spaces that they are designing for. To put down laptops and speak to the people that we seek to provide light for. The result of the workshop: Interested residents. Outstanding student ideas. Phenomenally creative, practical and above all non expensive to implement. A housing association that was open to helping us, willing to listen and keen to make the ideas a reality…

We also used Guerrilla Lighting as a way of engaging the residents, showing them what was possible and celebrating a week of creativity and playing with light.  View the gallery here

We’re off to Sweden as part of the second SLM workshop and the Stockholm Lighting Days – click on the links for more info

Social Light Movement

Stockholm Lighting Days

Check back soon for more information and images!