Teams are given the same technical 'ingredients' (lighting instruments and cables) to light specific outdoor parts of the College's beautiful green campus. The team of lighting design students from Rose Bruford College and two teams from UCL's Bartlett School of Architecture also participated alongside contestants from well-established professional practices.
The nature of competition is for teams of professional and commercial lighting firms to match expertise against one another to produce a lighting installation that is judged on both artist merits and technical achievements by a professional judging panel drawn from professional peers from the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL), the International Association of Lighting Designers (IALD), the technical lighting supplier White Light and the lighting staff from London's Royal National Theatre. There is also a peer prize awarded.
This year's winners were: Future Designs: SLL - Technical Award; WSP: IALD - Creative Award; Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), Team A: Peer Award.
One of the winners of an award, Future Designs, based in Kent, wrote to say: "I just wanted to drop a line to say thank you for inviting us to Rose Bruford College yesterday for 'Ready Steady Light'. We had a thoroughly enjoyable day and it was a pleasure to meet you, visit the college and meet the students. It was a great opportunity for us to get out of the office and get involved with architectural lighting and we were even more chuffed to win a prize."
The Saturday before (15 March) the College also hosted the second annual version of 'Junior Ready, Steady, Light', where teams of young people competed along the same lines as the professional competitors.
Six schools and FE Colleges competed in this year's event, which was won by BTEC students from City College Norwich, who now look forward to achieving their main prize, lighting the National Theatre's building found on London's Southbank. The runner-up award went to Eltham College. Looking to the future, Rose Bruford College and sponsors of 'Junior Ready, Steady, Light' are keen to expand the competition across the UK, increasing the format to two rounds, more information will be available later this year via access@bruford.ac.uk.
Ready, Steady, Light is made possible by sponsorship from the Society of Light and Lighting and Phillips UK and donations to the 'Junior' version from, LEE Filters, PLASA and the National Theatre.
(Jim Evans)
