AWARD

Hundreds and Thousands is a unique, interactive light installation and part of this years Vivid Sydney.

Last Friday I finally had a chance to check out Vivid; the festival of light, music and ideas. Sydney's well-known annual light show that illuminates the harbour and gives a multi-coloured makeover to some of its other landmarks pulled out all the stops this year, with projection mapping playing a major part as always; using the opera house, Customs house and the MCA as their canvas. One of the absolute highlights was 'Hundreds and Thousands'. The concept of the installation, created by Designworks and Australian charity The Benevolent Society revolves around a walk-through tunnel, composed of thousands of little LED lights. The lights can be controlled individually, responding to on-the-ground visitors interacting with them, or can be influenced by tweets. People are invited to share their hopes for the future of Australia’s children via twitter (hashtag: #hopesforchange), or through the website hopesforchange.org.au. The greater the number of people sharing their hopes and thoughts, the more dynamic the LED effects become. Pretty clever.

“Hundreds and Thousands is so much more than a light installation, it’s a wonderful platform to engage with Australians of all walks of life and share a little bit of our history, what we stand for today and our vision for the future. The light installation is exciting and thought-provoking, and will inspire people to share their hopes for change for Australia’s future….We are absolutely delighted with the result.” Says Anne Hollonds, CEO of The Benevolent Society.

A ‘festival of ideas’, Vivid Sydney is expected to attract over 550,000 people before it ends on June 10th. 'Hundred and Thousands' can be found next to the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay (at First Fleet Park).