The spotlight will be on the science of light as the award winning Light Up Sir Harold Hillier Gardens At Christmas – a finalist in two categories in this year’s Tourism South East Beautiful South Tourism Awards – gets ready to welcome visitors this week to a sparkling family celebration of Christmas and colour.
Staff and student scientists from the University of Southampton will be on hand to help fire the creative imaginations of the next generation of physicists as the Christmas light art trail opens at the award-winning Romsey visitor experience. Until New Year’s Day the 180-acre arboretum, home to some of the UK’s most important botanical collections, will be welcoming visitors after dark to a Christmas Wonderland of light art installations created by top artists and designers.
“The creative use of light is breath taking, but without the science that lies behind it – the physics and optical engineering – it might never be able to leave the artists’ imagination,” explains Dr Pearl John, Public Engagement Leader in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southampton.
“So, to have scientists at arts events such as Light Up Trails is really important to us. We want to engage with young people who are yet to even recognise the science in what they’re seeing.”
The scientists will be meeting visitors and talking to them about the physics research work at Cornerstone, the photonics innovation centre based at the University of Southampton where it is pioneering the development and commercialisation of silicon photonics technology using light waves instead of electrical currents to transfer information.
“Photonics is central to our world, it is an enabling technology, from arts and media to manufacturing and engineering,” adds Dr John. “Yet we have a skills shortage in that there are not enough physicists and optical engineers coming through even though there are plenty of jobs – some of them very well paid – in this field.”
Light Up Trails partnered with the University of Southampton and Cornerstone to host a lantern making workshop with Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill Year 8 students last month, engaging pupils with the science of light and the technology behind the light trail.
“The artists and designers we work with at Light Up Trails are absolutely brilliant, but so are the scientists and technologists who enable their work,” say directors Libby Battaglia and Lucinda Croft.
“Light Up Sir Harold Hillier Gardens at Christmas is made up of wonderful, beautiful, immersive moments – the stuff that lifelong memories are made of – so to find out about how and why they work has totally blown us away!”
Alongside new features such as the remarkable Magic Pathway video installation, the immersive Symphony of Light on the Pond and the ever-popular Written in the Stars with its new twice-as-big screen, this year’s star attractions include international sound artist Karen Monid’s Wild Yule, a large scale soundscape encouraging visitors to experience the winter landscape as a living place that has inspired myths and imagination.
Drawing on the culture of early northern European and Viking worlds, it recreates the sound of the landscape as our forebears felt it to be, a place where nature is inhabited by mythic creatures, water and earth are alive with spirits, and midwinter is a unique point in time, heralding new life as the Wild Hunt rides the winter storms to sweep away the old year.
“We can’t wait to share this year’s trail with everyone,” add Libby and Lucinda. “More than 72,000 people came last year and we’re expecting even more to come this time – and each one will leave with their own story. It’s just magical.”
As a finalist in two categories – Tourism Event/Festival of the Year and Unsung Hero, for the unflappable Head of Technical Production Zane Meaby – Light Up Sir Harold Hillier Gardens At Christmas is guaranteed to win gold, silver or bronze in each at the Tourism South East Beautiful South Tourism Awards ceremony hosted by Heart radio’s Toby Anstis at the Grand Brighton on Tuesday 10 December.
For more about Light Up Sir Harold Hillier Gardens At Christmas and to book tickets, visit lightuptrails.com
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