Night Lights Scottsdale Waterfront		Print This Page Email This Page

Night Lights on the Canal

This event features premier music and light-based art installations-the kind you might find at the legendary Burning Man or Coachella music festival-along the beautiful Scottsdale Waterfront (Scottsdale Rd & Camelback). These innovative cultural gatherings will occur on third Thursdays this autumn: October 16, November 20 and December 18, 2008. Don't miss the dynamic music and the magical transformations that are sure to be the talk of the town.

Come watch, stroll, wander, and wonder as public art lights up Scottsdale!

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Recurring Projects

The following projects and acts will be featured at each event:

o Mary Lucking's Amur Serenade

Arizona's own, Tucson based Mary Lucking has created a special, signature artwork: Amur Serenade. The projection-based work will run nightly from October 7 through December 20. 

Stroll on over to the Marshall Way Bridge, sing, and watch the water where fish will dance and blush to the notes of your voice.

Watch as ghostlike light-bodied amur (the fish that populate our canals) emerge and swim up and out the water onto the surrounding landscape.  Amur Serenade promises to delight viewers of all ages.   

o PVCC (Paradise Valley Community College) Partners in Art's Drawing with Light

Feed your inner Picasso, dance with your inner Matisse, or sway to your inner Warhol. As you draw with light your artwork will be photographed and projected onto the big screen. Come and bask in your 15 minutes of fame.

o dk.strickler

Arizona's most up-and-coming DJ will keep things lively on the turntables, treating audiences to his eclectic music collection.

Special Art Installations & Live Music at Each Event

These one-time projects will be up for one night-and one night only!

December 18, 2008, 7 - 11 p.m.

o Jonathan Foote, Michael Prados and the "Swarmies" Collective's SWARM

Debuted at 2007's Burning Man, SWARM is a kinetic artwork made up of multiple semi-autonomous spherical robots or Orbs.  The Orbs movements are remote controlled by human operators and they respond to their environment by emitting unique sounds and light patterns.  With GPS guidance and computer controls, the spheres execute motions ranging from those of wild animals to that of graceful dancers. http://orbswarm.com

o Michael Kontopolous & Nova Jiang's Moon Theater

Moon Theater uses interactive shadow-play and high tech magic to transform your hands shadows into puppets that are then projected onto a large floating moon.  The audience is invited to participate and make the puppets dance, fight, and play.  The possibilities are endless. The images will inspire, amuse, and confound. www.novajiang.com/installations/moon-theater

o Live Music by Peachcake

Arizona's own Peachcake celebrates the release of their newest album, What Year Will You Have the World? (due out Nov 18) with an unforgettable performance and CD Release Party. A unique visual component will kick things off, followed by the upbeat electronica sounds that have earned this group widespread critical acclaim. www.myspace.com/peachcake

o D.A. Therrien's Beautiful Light

Due to this week's inclement weather D.A. Therrien's Beautiful Light artwork has been postponed. For safety reasons, the artwork can not be installed and performed in rain.

Check www.ScottsdalePublicArt.org for the new Beautiful Light date, to take place early next year. Please join us then!

ABOUT THE ART

D.A. Therrien’s large-scale artwork, Beautiful Light, will suspend 80 feet above the Arizona Canal at Scottsdale Waterfront. The high-voltage spectacle performance features an enormous 50-foot-wide digital display of quartz lamps, called the 4 Letter Word Machine. Set above a 60-foot-wide canvas of water, with Camelback Mountain and the night sky as backdrop, the rare performance of this major artwork is one not to miss.

Beautiful Light is Therrien’s first public experiment with the capabilities of the 4 Letter Word Machine as a visual translation and communications system correlating two technologies—the 4-letter DNA code and the first and most profound human technology, communication. The artwork is among the first art-in-infrastructure projects commissioned by Scottsdale Public Art to engage the canal system as cultural space. Project presented by Scottsdale Public Art, Starwood Capital Group, and Golub & Company.

Past Night Light on the Canal Events

October 16, 2008, 7 -11 p.m.

o Mykl Wells's Chimera

Wells-a veteran of GLOW (Oracle's art-music-dance-video-performance celebration of the harvest moon)-creates monumental lanterns in the form of animals, people, and strange creatures.  Well's artwork combines sculpture with recyclables, light, projections, and shadows to create dynamic, compelling works. 

o Catherine Borg's Illuminated Exchange

Borg works across multiple mediums utilizing video, audio, photography, and sculpture.  Illuminated Exchange invites passersby to take a LED light to wear and leave something in exchange. Small lights will sparkle and gather momentum as people participate in the exchange. www.catherineborg.com

o Michael Lundquist's Blue Galaxy

Blue Galaxy is a kinetic array of lights designed to dazzle and delight. Come bask it its light.

o Live Music by Human Mirror

Featuring members and former members of Phoenix-based groups Yourchestra and Peachcake, Human Mirror will perform, employing various genres in an elecrto-acoustic style featuring laptop, drumset, vocals, synths, loops, and live video art. www.humanmirrorproject.org

November 20, 2008, 7 - 11 p.m.

o Joseph O'Connell's Tympani and Making Do With Little Water

Tucson based O'Connell's Tympani invites you to dance to the beat of a different drum by making your own music and light show. When participants grasp Tympani's sensors, the drum comes alive with the rhythm of one's own heartbeat and brilliant lights.  Give in to the spirit that moves you and take part in this delight.

Making Due With Little Water allows visitors the chance to control the flow rate on O'Connell's water projector. The projected image can change from a raging torrent of a waterfall to a small trickle, but its hypnotic qualities remain undeniable.

o Mark Lottor's Cubatron

An amazing 3-D array of tens of thousands of LED lights programmed with ever-changing effects and colors.  If you haven't made it to Burning Man or Coachella, now is your chance to be mesmerized by the Lottor's newest installation.  You have to see it to believe it. Don't miss this show-stopper artwork. www.3waylabs.com

o Live Music by Energy Trio

Project Contacts

T(he)BAR program: Valerie Vadala Homer, valerievh@sccarts.org; 480-874-4645

Night Lights: Diana Fisher, dfisher@sccarts.org; 480-874-4667