i-Light Marina Bay: Highlighting Singapore's nightscape

Light, we can't live without it but we can certainly consume less energy in the process. 

That’s what i-Light Marina Bay (October 15-November 7; 7:30p.m. to midnight) aims to showcase with 25 light art installations along Marina Bay’s shores.

Asia’s first sustainable light art festival that marries art with new technology challenges artists, designers and architects -- which include Sun Yu Li, Chris Bosse, and Mark Hammer -- to make copious use of light-emitting diodes (LED), solar power, good ol’ elbow grease, and even discarded cooking oil in their creations. 

"Fire Flies": Almost like the real thing, recycled PET-bottles and blinking diodes mimic fireflies.

Highlights include static displays such as “Fire Flies” by Francesco Mariotti, which uses recycled PET-bottles and blinking diodes to mimic fireflies.

While other installations encourage interaction such as “Touch. Do Not Please The Work Of Art” by Michael Lee & Cornelia Erdmann.

The installation title is painted on a wall under the Esplanade Bridge and by touching it, you will leave behind temporary shadows on the wall.

"Wattfish": Crank it up, use fishing rods on The Helix Bridge to generate electricity.

Preferring to involve the public, WattFish by Meinhardt Light Studio Team installation involves five fishing rods mounted onto each of the four pods on The Helix Bridge. Instead of dipping for fish, passers-by use a hand crank to generate electricity to light up LEDs that will pose as the fishing line.

i-Light Marina Bay: Navigate the 20 different installations.

i-Light Marina Bay is best experienced by strolling along the Light Walk, a 3.2-kilometer walking route that encircles the Marina Bay which showcases each installation.

Festival director Mary-Anne Kyriakou suggests that festival goers spilt up the walk into several sittings as the entire route takes about an hour and 20 minutes to complete.

“After all, the idea behind the Light Walk is for people to come back again and again,” she says.

Visitors can participate in a one-hour guided walk tour at 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. There are also free tours. Registration and more information can be found at http://www.marina-bay.sg/ilightmarinabay.