Photo gallery: Opening night of Cultural Olympiad's Vectorial Elevation light show

by Travis Lupick on February 5th, 2010 at 9:13 AM

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Last night (February 4), spotlights shone from the shores of English Bay into the Vancouver night sky. They’ll do so again this evening, and every night through to February 28.

Part of the 2010 Winter Olympics’ Cultural Olympiad, the installation is called Vectorial Elevation. It is comprised of 20 200-kW lights that shine from dusk to dawn.

Anybody in the world can actually “participate” in the exhibition. The lights’ trajectories change every 10 seconds. The patterns they shine to create are made in response to Internet users’ suggestions submitted via the Vectorial Elevation Web site.

Comments

7 Comments

commontater

Feb 5, 2010 at 5:55pm

Oh wowie! I guess since Vancouver is 'the Greenest City in the world' and these days the Olympics are Soo Green; that these have gotta be solar powered lights. Wowie!

miguel

Feb 6, 2010 at 7:57am

I must be missing something here; these pic's just look like colourized photos of the London Blitz.
Miguel

miga

Feb 6, 2010 at 12:03pm

Why oh why does (almost) everyone who lives here moan all the time! Yes, I understand all the problems and protests concerned with the Olympics but the negativity that exists is overwhelming! It seems as if you moan about things just for the sake of it - if you actually read the information about this installation you would get a better understanding of how environmentally aware this artist is. Vancouver, the world is watching you - it's embarrassing how miserable some of you are.

Heather Kennedy

Feb 6, 2010 at 3:13pm

Anyone know what time the performance actually begins? "Dusk" is a pretty vague concept for hanging out on the beach on a February evening.

Strategis

Feb 7, 2010 at 3:08pm

Art is great. We need way more art. Real art. Art is free of government manipulation, exploitation and control. But the federal and provincial governments are doing less and less to support real artists and art. They tie arts funding to things unrelated that fulfil their corporatarian agenda, like gambling casinos and gladiatorial or atavistic muscle development and coordination contests. The message is - art is there to serve the government's agenda, not as an inherently valuable and vital aspect of society. If some government or corporation actually funded a real artistic display or performance for no other reason than to give to society, that would be beautiful. But a light show like this tied to the Olympics tragedy can never be appreciated as something beautiful or free. It is art in a cage, an ugly cage.
This 2010 Olympics corporate money-making and "distracting the masses from corporate and government war crimes" boondoggle has provided many instructive lessons on the censorship and control agenda of Canadian governments where the arts are concerned.

Ann Coombs

Feb 8, 2010 at 7:17pm

LOVE this event... it can be seen forever, it is festive and imaginative. If the lights are hitting your apt. bedroom, put on an eye mask ...
Most important... open your minds and hearts to this once in a lifetime experience!