2021-2022
Location: Aberdeen
Collaborator: Spectra Festival
Supported by: Event Scotland

Film/Visuals: Illuminos
Research: Neu Reekie!
Music Score: Illuminos

In Collaboration with Event Scotland and their Year of Stories this project aims to explore hidden tales of Scotland’s diverse population and with Aberdeen City having the highest number of immigrants per capita in Scotland it was a perfect place to start.
The Project invited, as part of Spectra Festival of Light, artists to share their stories as part of the Writ Large Commission, which then went on to inspire a visual interpretation by Light Artists Illuminos. Bringing together the diverse voices of Scotland’s most diverse city and combining creative lighting, film and projection installations with words, music and film exploring identity, displacement, migration and memory.

Scotland’s Year of Stories spotlights, celebrates and promotes the wealth of stories inspired, written or created in Scotland. Stories are vital to every part of Scotland. Every community has its own tales to tell, places to highlight as inspiration for well-known books and films, visitor attractions that showcase our literature, poetry and storytelling heritage and all kinds of places and spaces where stories, old and new, can be enjoyed. From icons of literature to local tales, Scotland’s Year of Stories encourages locals and visitors to experience a diversity of voices, take part in events and explore the places, people and cultures connected to all forms of our stories, past and present.

Neu Reekie!

The Project approached award winning literary collective Neu Reekie! to work with us on a new commission as part of Events Scotlands Year of Stories for 2022. Neu Reekie! is a prize-winning literary collective & arts production house, that have been curating and producing cross-culture shows for over ten years now. These occur in and around Scotland and internationally (New York, Tokyo, Barcelona, Jakarta +). They have taken over National Galleries, National Museums and media platforms, whilst programming events alongside the likes of Edinburgh International Festival, Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014, Mayor of Londons Borough of Culture and Hull City of Culture 2017.

SIX FRAMES - ILLUMINOS

Six Frames is a playful interpretation of six stanzas from Sheena Blackhall’s poem Twa Brigs Bussie created by Illuminos. Marischal College facade will be brought to life through cascading rhythmic imagery, drawning from Blackhall’s poem and Scots dialect - a pulsing, whirring, humming trundle from Brig o Dee to Music Haa to Justice Coort and beyond. Using principles found in flick books and early animation, Illuminos will take visitors on a journey through Aberdeen.