Credit: LUMA Projection Arts Festival

A Trippy Light Festival Will Turn This City in Upstate New York Into an Outdoor Art Gallery

New York News Art + Architecture
by Jori Ayers Aug 27, 2021

The fantastical and transportative LUMA Projection Arts Festival is coming back this fall, and the show will be bigger and brighter than ever.

LUMA light festival projection on historic building

Credit: LUMA Projection Arts Festival

LUMA is an immersive outdoors art festival where artists project photos and videos and 3D animation on the historic buildings of Binghamton in upstate New York.

Projection on building during the LUMA light festival in upstate New York

Photo: Mark Doyle via the LUMA Projection Arts Festival

This year’s LUMA will take place on September 10 and 11, and feature artists from around the world, including Sila Sveta from Moscow; Mindscape from Bucharest; Maxin10sity from Budapest; LightHarvest from Brooklyn; and Freckled Sky/Invisible Showman from Chicago.

According to Luma’s website, there will be four performances at the festival this year:

  • Cheerful Nightmares:
    “A trip to your favorite amusement park is sure to thrill–but what happens when the park takes the thrills a bit too far–and the amusements take on a life of their own? Maxin10sity transforms 95 Court in a tribute to a classic county carnival with a frightful twist–one that has you asking if the rides are only there to quicken your pulse, or for some more devious design.”
  • Firefly:
    “Cloaked in total darkness, a single, flickering light can transform the world. Firefly takes us on a journey of profound illumination and insatiable curiosity. Every crevice revealed by the warm autumn glow brings us closer to the truth. Every riddle solved shows more landscape beyond. And just when we think all is revealed, the energy hiding beneath launches the journey anew.”
  • Cosmogonia:
    “Our universe has been on a billion-year journey without even a single witness to record its countless transformations — that is until we appeared. Now we stare into the infinite, determined to unlock its mysteries. But can we even conceive that which it’s trying to teach? Cosmogonia is driven by the belief that an unimaginable journey awaits us–a mission seeded by our certainty that somewhere, someday, something just beyond our comprehension is waiting to transform our understanding of everything we have ever known.
  • Duet in AI:
    “In a bold never-before-attempted experiment, Sila Sveta will build the world’s first AI projection mapping feature and facilitate a visual conversation between its flesh and blood designers and the mind of the machine learning a cutting edge art form. The work will begin with the presentation of a traditionally constructed mapping but will end with an artistic exploration of the building’s architectural facade as seen by an advanced algorithm.”

Those attending the festival who aren’t vaccinated will have to wear a mask; those who show proof of their vaccination will be exempt from wearing one. The festival is also requiring tickets with reserved time slots to prevent overcrowding.

LUMA Arts Festival projection on building

Credit: LUMA Projection Arts Festival

The LUMA Projection Arts Festival is free to the public, and all ages are welcome, but guests must reserve a ticket to attend. Each performance is 75 minutes and will be held at three different showing times: 8:30 PM, 9:45 PM, and 11 PM.

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