A Spectacular Canvas: The 2013 Vivid Sydney Festival Kicks Off With "Play"

Vivid Sydney, an annual 18-day festival of light, music, and ideas, will once again transform Sydney's skies, waters, and landmarks into a spectacular canvas of light. Kicking off the festival is Australia’s own creative innovators The Spinifex Group who have taken over the Sydney Opera House sails with a newly commissioned artwork, “PLAY”,  transporting audiences through a playfully projected journey that will celebrate Vivid Sydney’s light, music and ideas in an immersive new way.

In the ultimate art meets architecture encounter, The Spinifex Group is outfitting the Opera House sails with a new visual adventure featuring dramatic animations and iconic, thought-provoking imagery. As part of the Opera house's annual makeover, the ground-breaking technical executions on the sails will combine light projection, architectural mapping and tightly-choreographed motion graphics as the sixty-strong Sydney agency takes on their hometown to perform on one of the nation’s most culturally significant landmarks.

Also part of this years festival will be a glowing makeover of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Using the latest interactive lighting technology, you’ll be able to select a section of the bridge to light up, choose your own color and watch in awe as your illuminated creation brings to life the beautiful grey arch and spans of this iconic piece of Australian architecture. It’s a rare treat to play with something you drive, walk or cycle over on a regular basis!

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCAA) is a major harbourside venue in Vivid Sydney. Not only do stunning 3D mapped illuminations light up the façade of the building in a creative splurge of colour and movement but, inside, the museum is home to the ever-expanding Vivid Ideas Exchange as well as a series of major new exhibitions. 3D-mapped projections are the result of a unique collaboration between a world-class content creator and a world-class creative communications company. The sublime work of Australian artist, Gemma Smith, represented in the MCAA’s collection, is also brought to life by Sydney’s Spinifex Group.

Photography Courtesy of Vivid Sydney