Medway Light Nights - Programme
Medway Light Nights - Programme
Medway Light Nights - Programme
Medway Light Nights 2023 - Programme
Medway Light 2023 consists of a variety of playful and accessible installations that celebrate the landscape and local stories. Chatham has a strong and growing creative community. Medway Light Nights 2022 will highlight the town’s historical and current relationship with artists. With the commissions reflecting the areas rich history, diverse culture and ambitious future of Chatham.
#LoveChatham #MedwayLightNights
A giant inflatable sphere, 4 metres tall that glows with intense colours and images. And you can become part of the spectacle - have your likeness taken by our vintage portrait camera, and a minute later your image will be mapped into one of our quirky animations.
Then see yourself or your friends flutter, flock or spin around this magical, illuminated globe.
Chatham born artist; DREAM SAFARI has created a mural of Thomas Waghorn that will tell the story of his legacy using video mapped animation… with extra traffic cones for good measure!
The installation will reflect the rich history of Chatham, the life of Thomas Waghorn and the impact he has on the town today!
Music by Pye Corner Audio.
A joyful, roaming disco extravaganza that shines a light & celebrates the unique members of Chatham’s diverse community! Heart-Beats is a small battery powered electric vehicle that houses a specially designed DJ booth.
Our aim is to gather, inspire & celebrate the people of Chatham through collective dance, music, light & comic performance. Heart-Beats will provide a space for spontaneous moments of togetherness, the appreciation of one another and positive community spirit creating new moments of communal pride & happiness!
Electric Chatham is a projected installation that aims to create a fusion of light and architecture with each having equal stake in the resulting spectacle. Using the former National Electric Theatre, most recently Pound World, in the High Street, this installation will move, entertain and inspire audiences to appreciate the heritage and history that continues to exist behind the Chatham’s shop façades.
Electric Chatham will interact with the ornate façade of the former cinema in three ways; passively, physically, and metaphysically, enticing viewers to see their town in a new light.
Patchwork Habitats is a fun-filled, interactive artwork, bursting with colour, light and sound. It weaves a rich, audio-visual journey, exploring the powerful relationship existing between people, place and our natural environment. It examines how, when we work in harmony with our surroundings, both we and our environment flourish.
The piece will be developed in co-creation with the local community, in a series of workshops inspired by local flora and fauna. Large scale projections and laser system will bring the dancing characters of the Patchwork Habitat to life, in a celebration of the awesomeness of our natural world.
A glowing frigate rides the heaving waves as it battles the sea storms of the Chatham night.
Its salt-soaked crew steer it through the streets desperately seeking refuge from the furious wind and waves. The captain bellows orders as the crew struggle with the sails and the figurehead wails with fear from beneath the bowsprit. The ship is pulled by a group of local sea cadets and sails in a sea of shining wave lanterns made and worn by local community groups.
Eventually, just as all seems lost, the figurehead spots land and the ship limps into refuge. As the sails are dropped the figurehead sings an aria so sweet that a Chatham albatross climbs the rigging and soars high above the deck in an accompanying aerial dance. The ship and crew are saved
Bureau of Silly Ideas are creators of inspired madness and controlled chaos in the public realm.
By engaging people in a conversation that extends beyond the absurd, we can impact genuine social change. BOSI injects art, entertainment, humour and surprise in everyday places - creating engaging installations, devised theatre shows and surprising interventions that bring magic and silliness to the mundane. From a robotic menagerie of street furniture to the creation of Super Fictions that bend the fabric of reality; you’re never quite sure where BOSI have popped up to make the world a little sillier.
PIXELS is a large-scale, site-specific art installation that will see the Pentagon Centre completely transformed into a beacon of light - visible from all over Chatham. The iconic wall of windows of Mountbatten house will be illuminated from within, displaying mesmerising visuals which move across the building to tell a story of hope, light and joy.
PIXELS is a celebration of the essence of Chatham, vast in scale - it will illuminate both the town centre and the river Medway as part of Medway Light Nights 2023.
6.45pm (procession Finale) to 9pm Friday, 10 February & 6.00-9.00pm Saturday, 11 February.
Join us on a journey through the Medway as we explore the enchanted river that made Chatham great.
Taking place at our art centre on Chatham High Street, you will experience an immersive experience of lights, sounds, theatre and surprise as visitors walk through the gardens of Nucleus Arts, transformed into magical playground of nautical fun, all created by our talented resident artists and community groups.
This includes our submarine, a silent disco, an exhibition by the Chatham Historical Dockyard, and maybe even a real Mermaid!
372.5~Medway is a visualisation of the effortless distribution of water along the river Medway during the 6-hour tidal period. Using tidal charts, the mesmerising installation uses a system of pulleys and weights inspired by the historical methods of tidal measurement to recreate the current behaviour of the river that is the heart of the maritime town of Chatham.
The piece is a continuation of the artist’s exploration of replicating the movements of Nature using technology.
Over 600 local children from 20 local schools and groups will take part in the Medway Night Lights Lantern Parade produced by Cohesion Plus and Ideas Test. The children will participate in creative arts workshops delivered by Intra Arts in the lead up to the event, creating pieces that showcase what they love about Chatham including boats, birds, hearts and flowers. The procession will feature culturally diverse music from Baja Beats, Bloco Fogo Samba, Kings of Dhol and Uzambezi and follow Circo Rum Baba's Light Ship along the high street.
Child friendly Medway and United Nations Board of Significant Inspiration marble awareness pop-up.
Wander through a vista of flames and chemical reactions! Dr. Kronovator and his team have prepared an experiment of flame and steam-powered contraptions that audiences are invited to activate.
Dr. Kronovator’s Fire Laboratory is a stunning interactive environment with ingenious fire installations for audiences of all ages.
To celebrate its return, on the 1 &2 July 2023, Medway Gaming Festival (MGF) will be running an amazing retro gaming competition projected into the Chatham High Street for the Medway Light Nights Festival on the 10 and 11 February 2023! Experience the Arcade Classics like never before on huge scale.
As well as being great fun, we will be offering a massive ticket giveaway for the best scores each day. Just come along and try your arcade skills out and win those tickets! The MGF hosted at the Historic Dockyard Chatham in Partnership with Medway Council.
Where we live influences us and leaves a permanent imprint on who we are. Murmur, an interactive light installation enables you to leave a heart shaped imprint on the landscape of Chatham.
Supported by Medway Development Company.
We asked local people with experience of homelessness from Pathways and Riverside Housing to take some cameras and document the light part of the day and the dark side of the day and here is the result.
Intra Illuminations is a series of artworks created by illustrator/designer Mark Barnes that cast light upon the history, music, arts and LGBTQIA+ links of the Chatham Intra area.
They will light up the windows of businesses and venues along the old high street between Chatham and Rochester as part of the Medway Light Nights fringe event'.
A light-based artwork installed in the Intra Arts windows gallery, part of a building formerly known as the Gentlemen & Boys Outfitters of Featherstones department store, and latterly housing a company called ‘Spemco’ who manufactured printed electrical circuit boards.
Highlighting the history of the area as well as referencing the past and future role of technology locally, the artwork uses the symbol of a circuit board to explore ideas of connectivity and energy running through people and communities.
The Central Theatre opens its doors and welcomes you to experience music in lights as part of this year’s Medway Light Nights. With each performance lasting around 15 minutes, we present music and songs across multi-genres, reimagined in impressive moving light displays.
Incorporating additional light projection in our foyer areas, this is an opportunity to see this lovely venue as you have never seen it before.
Friday 6.45pm, 7.30pm, 8.15pm
Saturday 6.15pm, 7pm, 7.45pm, 8.30pm
Friday 10th & Saturday 11th February 2023. Doors open to public for the evening light event at 6pm. Closure at 9pm.
For more information on events and updates on how you can join in, check out https://www.medway.gov.uk/libraries
*The activities are free but booking is required. Contact Chatham Library on 01634 337799 or email us at [email protected]
