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Environmental public arts specialists NVA have taken things a | :00:30. | :00:37. | |
step further. For 20 nights, audiences of 800 people climb 700 | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
feet to the summit of Arthur's Seat. I don't know any other event with | :00:40. | :00:45. | |
the same level of ambition. For up to four hours, runners in white | :00:45. | :00:50. | |
suits run in choreographed sequences on the path network below. | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
At points, I thought this is the most complicated thing I've ever | :00:53. | :00:58. | |
done. Speed Of Light is the most physically challenging event for | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
off the audience and performers ever staged at the Edinburgh | :01:00. | :01:10. | |
:01:10. | :01:16. | ||
I ran as a way of life. I run the to sort my head out. I run to stay | :01:16. | :01:24. | |
young. Or younger. I run as a way of making work. It's a good way of | :01:24. | :01:31. | |
making sense of the world. Speed Of Light is Hill runners on one of the | :01:31. | :01:38. | |
greatest mountains in Scotland. The idea is that they will run on a | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
nightly basis Indies' incredible hand-made suits. As they are | :01:43. | :01:49. | |
creating these patterns of light, an audience, creating their own | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
patterns, moved to the summit of Arthur's Seat. As they move up, and | :01:53. | :01:58. | |
looked down on these runners, animating the path network and | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
choreographed lines, they begin to see them just as lines of energy, | :02:03. | :02:09. | |
as dots. You lose the human and it becomes about something bigger. Or | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
smaller. It could be the inside of an atom or something on a stellar | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
level. It becomes extracted. It is just the sheer beauty of looking | :02:18. | :02:24. | |
down from the smart and top. Seeing the energy of running, the | :02:24. | :02:31. | |
insurance. The willpower, manifestos light. That is the fag | :02:31. | :02:38. | |
packet for urgent. -- version. main thing is the dynamism. Whoever | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
is at the outer edge of the explosion, comeback at the same | :02:42. | :02:46. | |
time. The sharper your group are, that communicates the image. That | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
is being seen as tiny dots of light from any quarter of a mile through | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
dark space. If a few Adair but others carry on, it just feels a | :02:57. | :03:03. | |
bit when are we. The more it is like, get there, turn, it is all | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
about sharpness. That did what makes it look really good. This is | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
a really big moment. After two years of planning, tonight we get | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
the light suits for the first time. There have been six different suits. | :03:18. | :03:25. | |
We are on mark 6. Tonight, we get 120 light suits, 240 runners. We | :03:25. | :03:31. | |
get a chance to put them out of the hill and see what it looks like. I | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
know what is going to be an interesting piece of work. But is | :03:34. | :03:44. | |
:03:44. | :03:46. | ||
it going to be a great piece of Each performance of Speed Of Light | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
is designed for over 200 runners. Taken from a pool of over 4000, all | :03:50. | :03:56. | |
of whom have signed up for the event through the internet. It just | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
seemed really interesting. I fancied a shot of the light suits | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
as well. It's something different. Today is a chance for some of these | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
volunteers to try out the equipment and for the organisers to test | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
there logistics of the performance. You can put that higher, if you | :04:13. | :04:22. | |
want. Just so it gets into the small of your back. We have never | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
seen choreography in white suits on the hill. It's the first time I'm | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
going to see it live. That is a big part of tonight as well. There is | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
no guarantee any of these runners will be fit enough or that any of | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
them will choose to return in August. It looks very interesting. | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
Let's see whether we will like it or not. And when we come back, | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
whether we will do it or not. show time, during the Edinburgh | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
International Festival, each and every performance will rely on a | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
new set of runners. The only regular runners throughout if the | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
20 performances will be the 31 running leaders. We are going to | :05:03. | :05:10. | |
head up there and do some hand signals. When the leader puts the | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
arm down, that is the firefighter. It is a random run between two | :05:13. | :05:23. | |
:05:23. | :05:24. | ||
people. Can we do it? Just run, anywhere that you want to go. | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
pleased with that. We had good spacing. Everybody seemed to | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
memorise the signal. We are one of the flat at the moment, we will see | :05:32. | :05:38. | |
what it is like up on the hill. Speed Of Light is the 10th | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
environmental art performance conceived by NVA. It is by far the | :05:43. | :05:53. | |
:05:53. | :05:55. | ||
most challenging and ambitious. stands for National active life. It | :05:55. | :06:01. | |
is the idea that you make the society that you are in. You take | :06:01. | :06:10. | |
part, you have that right, you have that potential, as an individual. | :06:10. | :06:16. | |
It is a term, denoting that, really. This is where the individual | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
becomes part of this mass, collective thing. This is show | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
conditions. I need you, individually, to commit to really | :06:24. | :06:27. | |
working hard on the hill. If you feel like walking, you should not | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
be here. It is a serious undertaking. If you walk, it slows | :06:32. | :06:39. | |
the whole section down. That means that sequence, in lighting, goes | :06:39. | :06:47. | |
out of sync. Then that the patterns that are being made that dark | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
joyous 16,000 -- the public, that are paying for the ticket, there | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
will be going... Well, it's all right. I think I will go and get a | :06:56. | :07:01. | |
cup of tea. We are extremely excited to be here. Remember, | :07:01. | :07:11. | |
:07:11. | :07:21. | ||
safety, concentrate and give it Anyone can have a good idea. I can | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
say, great, let's send a lot of people running around Arthur's Seat | :07:26. | :07:31. | |
in light suits. Without these immensely talented and tenacious | :07:31. | :07:37. | |
people, none of it would be a reality. I was kind of intrigued by | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
this. It's not normally the thing that we do. I do a lot of work in | :07:41. | :07:45. | |
film. I remember rocking up there and they had sent me an e-mail | :07:45. | :07:49. | |
saying that we were going to be going on sight. In my mind, that | :07:49. | :07:56. | |
was, like, like a film style reconnaissance where you jump in a | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
car, hop out with a camera and take a couple of pictures. But they | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
meant actually hiking up to the top of Arthur's Seat. I remember coming | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
down and I had totally inappropriate clothes for it. They | :08:08. | :08:16. | |
were, like, did you get the e-mail about hiking, the wet-weather gear? | :08:16. | :08:19. | |
I went to an animation company had worked with a lot before on the | :08:20. | :08:27. | |
film side of things. Initially, we did something quite complex. First, | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
we created a three-dimensional version of the hill, that was | :08:32. | :08:38. | |
accurate. We created little animated runners in white suits. | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
Normally, as a choreographer, it is very visceral, it is very hands-on. | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
You're dealing with people. This was most challenging, in the sense | :08:47. | :08:57. | |
:08:57. | :09:00. | ||
If you think about each of our runners as an individual white | :09:00. | :09:08. | |
sauce, we have a battery in a little waist pack. -- light source. | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
Each of them is like an individual light source that you can control | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
through a conventional, wired system. We are making pictures with | :09:16. | :09:23. | |
these runners on the dark hillside. You have a group from this side and | :09:23. | :09:29. | |
that side and you want them to meet at the same time. But one are going | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
up hill, the other acme downhill. It's a complete the different | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
amount of time. If it is on a flat space, you just say, each do eight | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
steps and get to the centre. I colour-coded the maps according to | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
elevation. This is the downhill map. This is downhill, intermediate. | :09:48. | :09:54. | |
Just to get a sense. Then I could start drawing patterns which are | :09:54. | :10:04. | |
:10:04. | :10:14. | ||
This is the most important rehearsal so far. Intensity? All at | :10:14. | :10:21. | |
fault, I believe. We will never see them in these light conditions. | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
This is way lighter than we would do the performance. Let's go for it, | :10:25. | :10:35. | |
:10:35. | :10:46. | ||
That's not even a hard path! That is the easiest. One of the issues | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
is the runner's fitness. People sign up for a hill run and then | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
there is a path that is basically horizontal. In the first two | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
minutes, people are walking on the easiest path on the entire hill. | :10:58. | :11:05. | |
Already, they are completely at a sequence. I'm here already. We are | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
quite far behind. Thank you. There is not much that you can do about | :11:10. | :11:16. | |
it. That's beautiful. And this isn't even a good sequence! This is | :11:16. | :11:26. | |
:11:26. | :11:26. | ||
the one we were thinking about cutting! Why does it work? The | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
things that you thought were going to work do not work. The things | :11:29. | :11:39. | |
:11:39. | :11:54. | ||
that were not that good, are really If you see any incoming groups, | :11:54. | :12:02. | |
pass that message on. I'm close to cutting it. It's a hard call. Can | :12:02. | :12:12. | |
:12:12. | :12:14. | ||
you ask Orange how conditions are? A sleet storm and 30 mph wind is | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
presenting a dilemma. To abandon or continue the rehearsal? Have we | :12:18. | :12:25. | |
ever had whether this bad in August, in all honesty? Yes. We would like | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
you to come out of the holding area. This is a total change to the | :12:29. | :12:35. | |
choreography you have got. Come along the C path, then go along the | :12:35. | :12:41. | |
audience path. I do go to the marquee... Or extend and go back | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
down. Or go back down, depending on conditions, or over. Could you | :12:46. | :12:54. | |
We are three-and-a-half months off the show. The suits work. We know | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
what the problems are. It means we have to simplified its that are | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
complicated. It was very important to work in bad conditions. Only | :13:02. | :13:07. | |
through that, if we had a benign night and everything just danced, | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
and then we hit August 9th, 30 mile per hour of wind and driving rain | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
and we are facing that for the first time... It is always better | :13:15. | :13:25. | |
:13:25. | :13:26. | ||
to have bad weather. It's a gift from God! I wouldn't go that far. | :13:26. | :13:34. | |
As safety concerns grow, Angus decides to call a halt. If there | :13:34. | :13:39. | |
was not any risk, we would be doing cinema. It's very easy, the analogy | :13:39. | :13:45. | |
I always used his that live events, they are live. When you buy your | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
ticket for the event, you are taking a risk. What is exciting | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
about the work is that. At a very basic level, we are all excited by | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
the idea of making a collective effort, taking the risk and | :13:58. | :14:08. | |
:14:08. | :14:17. | ||
It will be warm her in August. worse it got, the funnier it was. | :14:17. | :14:23. | |
Was it the right decision? Did we pull it too soon? It was the right | :14:23. | :14:29. | |
decision. It was wet and windy, but as soon as we got running, it was | :14:29. | :14:35. | |
fun. The gap between how the final work should be and what I saw | :14:36. | :14:43. | |
tonight is really quite big. The choreographer and the lighting | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
designer need to sit down and we need to strip it back and say what | :14:47. | :14:53. | |
is working and what is not and go with what is working, keep it | :14:53. | :15:02. | |
simple and allow the whole thing to breathe. Part of the team is | :15:02. | :15:12. | |
:15:12. | :15:13. | ||
resonance FM, a left-field radio station. Come on in. We are | :15:13. | :15:21. | |
providing the sound aliment. station's ethos is quite | :15:21. | :15:25. | |
experimental, so we are always broadcasting kind of works in this | :15:25. | :15:32. | |
kind of area, so we need to take as many opportunities to produce work | :15:32. | :15:37. | |
like this as we can. They are designing this remarkable little | :15:37. | :15:47. | |
:15:47. | :15:47. | ||
system. It is quite simple on its own. These tones will be contained | :15:47. | :15:53. | |
on the audience light sticks and as they walk to the summit and hit a | :15:53. | :15:59. | |
certain altitude the tones will kick in. By moving the like stick | :15:59. | :16:06. | |
you modulate the sound. They might tip the sticks lightly. It is | :16:06. | :16:13. | |
shifting tonally and shifting by the movement of the Walker. | :16:13. | :16:18. | |
analogy would be to take a gigantic church organ, pull out all it stops | :16:18. | :16:28. | |
and then drag it up a cliff. There is 800 in the audience and they are | :16:28. | :16:35. | |
each given one of these and they liked the way and they create a | :16:35. | :16:45. | |
:16:45. | :16:45. | ||
snake like an animal. I am happy with the sticks and the suits. You | :16:45. | :16:49. | |
imagine in your head what a number of sticks is going to look like and | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
you just do not know. But when we saw them on their help it was a | :16:54. | :17:04. | |
:17:04. | :17:12. | ||
great feeling, yes it works and it With two months until the Edinburgh | :17:12. | :17:17. | |
Festival, they organise another rehearsal of Speed Of Light. I have | :17:17. | :17:24. | |
no doubt that some will turn up who are not really prepared. They may | :17:24. | :17:30. | |
be prepared in their minds, but it will be extremely tough. We are | :17:30. | :17:36. | |
going to push them to run in time and to run hard. If they do not, it | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
will not be as good a piece of work for people watching and the gaps | :17:40. | :17:49. | |
will appear and the whole thing will not flow. Every show during | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
the festival will have a different set of volunteer runners, so it is | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
down to the leaders to ensure the performances run smoothly on the | :17:58. | :18:04. | |
hill. You are still performing and people are still watching you. | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
is not about speed, but that dynamism of the basic running | :18:08. | :18:14. | |
movement. Visually what we are seeing is really strong. The areas | :18:14. | :18:20. | |
of pattern-making that were not working a couple of months ago are | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
starting to fill out and the movement over the hill is much | :18:23. | :18:29. | |
stronger. Although it is tougher to manage, it is beginning to work in | :18:29. | :18:39. | |
:18:39. | :18:48. | ||
terms of linking back to the Go away. Back in. Very good. | :18:48. | :18:58. | |
:18:58. | :19:20. | ||
HEAVY BREATHING. Get ready to sparkle. Brilliant. Do not go too | :19:20. | :19:30. | |
:19:30. | :19:46. | ||
far. This is your last one, come It is looking fantastic. They are | :19:46. | :19:49. | |
doing this for the first time, runners who have never been on that | :19:49. | :19:55. | |
hill before in darkness, in light suits and they are creating the | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
patterns we imagined. I cannot be objective about it, but for my | :19:59. | :20:09. | |
:20:09. | :20:18. | ||
money it looks pretty good. It is a It is good now have. We have sorted | :20:18. | :20:27. | |
out the choreography and we have sent out a film letting people know, | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
letting the 4000 runners know what they are letting themselves in for, | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
so we are getting a lot of cancellations. That is great, it is | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
what we intended. It is August and the task of managing a different | :20:39. | :20:45. | |
set of runners every night becomes a reality for the leaders. This is | :20:45. | :20:50. | |
a show, there are 800 paying audience members and the runners as | :20:50. | :20:56. | |
well and you have a responsibility. Although you might be a little cog | :20:56. | :21:01. | |
in a machine, you have got the responsibility. Running on a hill | :21:01. | :21:07. | |
at that time of night will be a different experience. It is a great | :21:07. | :21:17. | |
honour to be able to take part in it. It has been a huge undertaking | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
for NVA and the project has been in development for at least three | :21:20. | :21:25. | |
years, and that has involved not only building up the partnerships | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
with our funders and our stakeholders like Historic Scotland | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
to have given us permission to work on the site, but the project has | :21:33. | :21:37. | |
grown in terms of the number of people we need to deliver the | :21:37. | :21:45. | |
project. I thought it would be a fantastic way to experience are | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
they seat with the light and everything else. It will be | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
beatable being on top of Arthur's Seat combining the geology and the | :21:54. | :21:59. | |
like. We will see how it works out in the end. It will be fun because | :22:00. | :22:06. | |
I'd have got friends who went up to the top when they were students, | :22:06. | :22:16. | |
:22:16. | :22:26. | ||
but they didn't have any light and Welcome to the Speed Of Light... | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
the first audience of the night get their safety briefing, the runners | :22:29. | :22:38. | |
take to the hill for the start of the performance. Going up RSA seat | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
in the dark is a wonderful experience and something you feel | :22:42. | :22:48. | |
you should not be doing. Just going up there is incredible and the view | :22:48. | :22:53. | |
of Edinburgh is astounding. The other thing is being part of a | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
group of people with the sticks creating this strange, Centipede | :22:57. | :23:07. | |
:23:07. | :23:17. | ||
like creature going up the hill, so 20 and go. The performance begins | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
and as the audience walk through the valley they get their first | :23:21. | :23:31. | |
:23:31. | :23:44. | ||
I think for me it has always been about contrast, contrasting the | :23:44. | :23:54. | |
:23:54. | :23:56. | ||
natural and the a symmetrical with the ordered and the symmetrical. | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
People will have an amazing experience, whether they connect | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
directly with the work a lot, they will appreciate the effort and | :24:04. | :24:13. | |
understand and appreciate the individual runners within that. | :24:13. | :24:23. | |
:24:23. | :24:42. | ||
are doing really well so far. One, Before reaching the summit the | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
audience will pause to contemplate the performance below. Their light | :24:46. | :24:54. | |
sticks are designed to emit sound on approaching this viewpoint. | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
psychological way you think there is a correspondence between these | :24:58. | :25:08. | |
:25:08. | :25:36. | ||
distant, flickering figures and It is very important not to see | :25:36. | :25:41. | |
this as a piece of theatre or a big show or a spectacular. It is a very | :25:41. | :25:47. | |
low key piece of work, a very gentle piece of work. To get the | :25:47. | :25:52. | |
most out of it you have to sit and settle down and allow these images | :25:52. | :26:02. | |
:26:02. | :26:16. | ||
to gently build up and dissipate For me this is the duration of | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
sculpture, it is work that is unfolding and lighting a landscape | :26:20. | :26:27. | |
slowly over time. It is a subtle piece of work. It is expensive, it | :26:27. | :26:33. | |
cost over �1 million. And that has created a piece of work that will | :26:33. | :26:38. | |
probably now travel the world. We are already getting contacts from | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
different parts of the UK and we have got delegations coming from | :26:42. | :26:47. | |
Rio de Janeiro to see it, so we may take it out to the Olympics in four | :26:47. | :26:52. | |
years time. At the summit of Arthur seat at the tops of the light | :26:52. | :26:58. | |
sticks are removed and become part of a sound and light sculpture. The | :26:58. | :27:05. | |
audience then make their way off the hill. Many people looking at it | :27:05. | :27:08. | |
will see different things, depending on what they have read | :27:08. | :27:14. | |
and what they had seen. Some people see it in an abstract way and other | :27:14. | :27:24. | |
:27:24. | :27:25. | ||
people have references. I do not know if it was what I expected to | :27:25. | :27:31. | |
see or not. I have enjoyed it a lot. I think the runners are fantastic. | :27:31. | :27:35. | |
They have put a lot of effort into it and it has turned out really | :27:35. | :27:41. | |
well. It is about honest graft and the incredible effort that has been | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
made both by our team and the runners. Beyond whether you think | :27:45. | :27:51. | |
it is good art or not, ultimately it is about that endeavour. | :27:51. | :27:56. | |
certainly has been an experience. I think maybe what the directors | :27:56. | :28:02. | |
intended us to take but it was not what I took from it. For me it is | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
too small scale. I think you need many more people dressed up. But | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
Edinburgh is a very beautiful and inspirational place and that is | :28:11. | :28:16. | |
what will stay with me, I think. cannot pretend everything is | :28:16. | :28:20. | |
perfect for everyone. It is real life and some people get it and | :28:20. | :28:24. | |
some people do not. What you are hearing now is the cheering from | :28:24. | :28:30. |