A luminarium offers an experience that is complete in itself but at times a presenter may want to enhance their luminarium presentation by offering a complementary artistic animation:
Music
Musical performances are the most frequently programmed animations. They can be in the form of a separately ticketed event or as a pop-up interlude during general public admission that the visitors will encounter by chance when exploring the luminarium. Pop-up musical performances are acoustic and brief to avoid interrupting the flow of visitors.
Dance & movement
A visitor moving through the luminarium becomes a living element of the sculpture that is the luminarium. Dancers introduce a different dimension to the sense of being in the luminarium. The dancer may be evidently a performer or may resemble a visitor who is somehow differently responsive to the luminarium space.
Spoken word
Storytelling and poetry reading are simple animations easy to implement inside a luminarium for children and adults alike. A story may be one that is interwoven with the luminarium environment to bring it to life in a different way – on may be a thing apart. Stories and poems are empathetic to the luminarium’s calm ambience.
Screening & projection
A luminarium offer a special environment for viewing films, whether in a large dome to be watched by 50 visitors or to be in an intimate pod with 4 or 5 spectators. There is also the potential for mapping projections, either inside or outside, on the 3-dimensional surface of the luminarium.
Photography
A luminarium is a photographers’ paradise. Many visitors have used their own luminarium imagery as a springboard for their own artwork, on occasion prize-winning artwork. The arrival of a luminarium in town is often the opportunity for photographers affiliated to a camera club to descend on a structure like a pack of image-hungry wolves.
Soundscape
All the luminaria come with their own complementary sound experience. A soundscape by Irish composer, David Bickley, is played inside all the luminaria except Arboria, which has a composition by Alice Eldridge who mixed her recordings of the South American rainforest with her own piano work. Both pieces have contemplative & elemental qualities that are in harmony with the calm atmosphere we aim to maintain in the structures. Architects of Air is receptive to event-specific soundscape proposals.
Ambient Theatre
Ambient theatre describes theatrical happenings inside the luminarium that are discoverable as an element of the luminarium environment. There is usually no narrative to require the visitor’s attention, simply an encounter with a character who inhabits the space in an intentional and improvised way.
Essential factors for a presenter to consider:
Dialogue
Any animation of the luminarium is a creative partnership between Architects of Air, the host presenter and the guest artists. A full dialogue with the artists must take place to ensure compatibility in order that both the art-form and the luminarium will be experienced at their optimum. The space itself can be a distraction to the audience so the animation has to work with the space and not just in the space.
Functionality of the space
A luminarium an unconventional performance space and there are many practical factors to consider when planning an animation. Light technical equipment, including amplification, can be brought inside the luminarium.
Ticketed performance
A ticketed performance generally takes place after normal public opening hours. A ticketed performance may accommodate more visitors than the 80 maximum for general public admission.
