LUMEN

We were so excited that, back in September, one of our favourite uptown events was back. LUMEN is a festival of "light, sound, and technology" and there are always the most cool displays.

We started at the musical swings. This was an installation in our uptown square for about a month. Later in October, we went for ice cream when my parents were here and we all took a turn on the swings. They played tones as you swung on them.

This was a cool installation with shapes built out of slides. Most of my childhood was documented on slides so I really enjoyed these! The individual slides were of churches and cathedrals and buildings from all over.

The library had a few fun things to do, including the game pictured above. There were four bike pump type things that were hooked to a big screen. Each player pumped as hard as they could to get their colour to the top first. We all played until we had each won a round.

The lights on the left were from last year. As you talked, or sang, to them, they changed colours. The benches on the right were installed at one of the patios all summer. They changed colours too.

This installation was called "Peace Over War." When you hung up the phone, it would ring, and then when you answered it, someone was reading Emmanuel Kant's essay On Peace over and over. The kids loved answering the ringing phone.

Inside the library was a piano with an infinity mirror. As you played the piano, the lights in the mirror would change. It was fun to watch. They also had a display with musical mushrooms and the light harp from last year.

This installation was a monster where you could maneuver the arms and the head. As you did that, sounds played. This was actually a creation of the son of a friend of Dave's family so we were glad we got to check it out.

This fish, outside one of our art galleries uptown, was on wheels and the artist actually drove it down the 401 (a major highway) to get it here from Toronto. You could sign into a url on your phone and change the colour of the light on the top. Rachel and Sam had a BLAST doing that!

This was another installation in our public square. I loved watching the colours change. Also, it was at this point that Dave and I were really wishing LUMEN would happen over two nights. It was starting to get really crowded and we had to skip some things because the lines were too long, or the crowd was too big.

We walked to our city hall and they had a neat laser and sound show going on inside. It was loud but fun!

Then we ended the evening at these hexagonal infinity mirrors. They were so interesting to look into and I had a ton of fun taking unique pictures, as you can probably tell!

 

I don't know if LUMEN is unique to our city or if there are other LUMEN festivals in other places, but if you ever have a chance to check it out, go for it. It is so fun and interesting and we love going every year. For a few years, during Covid, it was online only but we're so happy it's back in person because we really enjoy it.