What in the world is IN Light IN?
No, IN Light IN is not a laser show.
"We will not be having a single laser in this light festival," said Joanna Nixon, who is helping to produce the event. "Instantly when I say light festival, I think what pops in people's minds is a laser light show. Indianapolis has not ever seen anything like this, ever."
But what, exactly, is "this"?
"We are really treating this festival very similar to a contemporary art exhibition," Nixon said.
So, here's the gist: IN Light IN is a free two-day, 2.5-mile tour through more than 25 interactive light works of art along the Downtown Canal from the Indiana Statehouse north to 11th Street and stretching east along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail to the American Legion Mall. Many of the artworks put the attendee in them, either through projection, becoming a living canvas or controlling the lighted piece. Nixon expects 15,000 people to visit the festival each of the two nights, though there is a potential for more.
"This festival is on a lot of people's radar," she said. "It's big. It’s really big. We are planning for enormous crowds."
The event, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the charitable Indianapolis Foundation, operates at a specific time Friday and Saturday, 8:52 p.m. to 1:02 a.m., because a typical August sunset is 8:25 p.m., Nixon said. Organizers wanted to ensure the sun was down to prevent it from polluting any of the light art.
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"I really can’t pick a favorite because everything going in the light festival is really, really special," Nixon said.
Here's some of what you will be able to do and see at IN Light IN:
Project yourself on the Scottish Rite Cathedral
Brooklyn artist collective YesYesNo will bring its interactive projection installation "Night Lights/Funky Forms" to the Scottish Rite Cathedral. Attendees will be able to move, dance or motion in front of one of three "light boxes," and then they'll become part of a new video, commissioned just for Indianapolis.
View local fashion designers' combination of light and couture
Indianapolis fashion collective Pattern's Light Haus Fashion Showcase features eight designers and 16 different light-incorporated pieces of wearable art. The models will be walking along the Downtown Canal during the festival.
"There's some really cool applications," Pattern Editor-in-Chief Polina Osherov said. "They look really, really amazing. It’s couture. It’s not really wearable. It’s fashion art."
Light could be in fashion's future, she said: Just look at the glow-in-the-dark dress actress Claire Danes wore to this year's Met Gala.
Learn history on the side of Indy's oldest African-American church
Artists Tiffany Carbonneau, from New Albany, and Susanna Crum, Louisville, created the 12-minute installation "A Place in Time," which will project on a loop on the side of the 140-year-old soon-to-be-shuttered Bethel AME Church.
"We developed a narrative and a focus for the content of the video, and the thing that just really kept coming up for us was just the people," Carbonneau said. "We're looking at the structure as more than just a building. It’s a structure that represents 200 years of history and that incorporated so many people."
Carbonneau and Crum interviewed congregation members to research the history of the church and what it has meant for the community.
"We're trying to do a few things: We want to pay homage to the structure as a historic structure that much of it is going to be lost, but also the most important thing for us is to help congregation members celebrate the spaces instead of mourning the loss," she said.
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Watch an artist create a video light painting live
L.A.-based Ryan Patrick Griffin uses an iPad, a pen and a few different programs to create his living painting, which will be projected on the side of the Indiana Government Building.
"When I say it's my canvas, I'll literally be drawing with my fingers or with my pen to paint imagery live," Griffin said. "It'll never be the same thing."
His live artwork will evolve throughout each night of the festival, and it'll be accompanied by a sound installation created by his partner Vera Amaya.
"The best way to describe it would be 'musical sound collage,'" he said.
Call Amy Bartner at (317) 444-6752 and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.