The exterior light art for both sites was designed by Finnish lighting designer Mikki Kunttu. It was the second year of the event, and followed on from Kunttu's successful lighting of Senate Square last year.
Kunttu chose the sites for their prestige and visibility in the city. The newly launched Robe CitySource 96 units were specified following site tests. The fixtures were delivered to lighting rental company Moving Light via Robe's Finnish distributor Live Nation Finland a couple of weeks before the installations went live.
Having these at his disposal enabled Kunttu to produce a spectacular colour changing canvass on Parliament House, and to create a completely different look and feel for Senate square than he had been able to do using different fixtures last year.
Fifty Six CitySource 96s were used to light the front and the most visible side fascia of the magnificent Parliament House, which was designed by J S Sirén and officially inaugurated in 1931. The fixtures were rigged on floor stands positioned close to the walls and columns, up-lighting the building which is 25m tall.
Says Kunttu, "It's always great to use the latest technology, and these fixtures are simply amazing - the power and the colours are incredible, they had no trouble at all in reaching the top of the building, and are the best LED fixtures I have used to date for an architectural application of this nature."
For control, the Parliament House lights - which also included some BigLites and SHOWPIX - were programmed into a cue stack on a grandMA light console. At Senate Square, everything was programmed into a grandMA full size, and the rolling show was triggered by timecode from the accompanying soundscape.
The city of Helsinki was so delighted with the initial results, that it immediately decided to extend the Parliament House installation from six to nine days.
The intention is that Helsinki Light Season becomes an annual New Year event, and is expanded next year to include light works and commissions by other artists and contributors and also incorporate other types of non-architectural light shows across the city.
(Jim Evans)
