Light festival brightens up November
Uppsala University and Akademiska Hus have funded the interactive light installation GEIST on Stora torget. Image: Destination Uppsala
For the 12th year in a row, the autumn darkness will be lit up by the Uppsala light festival “Allt ljus på Uppsala”. The three-kilometre trail, along which various luminous works of art are placed, will be inaugurated on 7 November. The theme this year is “The Promise of Change”.
This year, Uppsala University, together with Akademiska Hus, is funding the interactive light installation GEIST on Stora torget. The installation is inspired by particle physics’ search for neutrinos, also known as ghost particles. It comes to life when someone approaches it.
The aim of GEIST is to highlight the power that arises from encounters between science and people. It seeks to inspire students, researchers and Uppsala residents to new perspectives – and to remind them that change and knowledge always start with meetings between people.
Barrier in the Linnaeus Garden
The artwork has been created by the British art and design studio This is Loop, which creates large-scale light installations at the intersection of art, science and technology. The studio is led by Harriet Lumby and Alan Hayes.
In the Linnaeus Garden, visitors will be greeted by the Barriere light installation created by the Dutch Studio Philip Ross. There, the light draws a barrier which is intended to make the viewer aware of the invisible structures that surround us in society, in our relationships and in ourselves.
More light
Uppsala University is also contributing to enlightenment in another way during the light festival, namely through two popular science lectures that are open to the public. The first will take place on 12 November at the Gustavianum. Sleep researcher Jonathan Cedernaes, physician and researcher at the Department of Medical Cell Biology, will talk about the role of light in sleep and share his top tips for sleeping well.
The second lecture will be held on 18 November at Carolina Rediviva. Axel Pontén, doctoral student at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will take the audience on a trip to the South Pole and the neutrino telescope IceCube. There, researchers are studying neutrinos, the ghost particles that inspired GEIST.
Åsa Malmberg