Spectra, Scotland’s Festival of Light, will get underway this evening as thousands of eventgoers from across Scotland, Aberdeen and further afield, are expected to descend on the Granite City to enjoy the magic and wonder that the popular four-day event offers.
Featuring 15 artworks including giant projections and huge interactive light installations, as well as entertainment from street performers, to dancers, and musicians, the free-to-attend festival, owned and commissioned by Aberdeen City Council, and produced by Live Event Management, is now in its 11th year and saw over 100,000 people attend last year.
Running from 6th – 9th February and helping to light up the city are a range of leading artists and installations from across the UK and Australia, including a giant inflatable castle called Sky Castle by Australian artists ENESS, a huge neon colouring wall by Scottish illustrator, Johanna Basford OBE, and two installations by Newcastle-based Studio Vertigo which include a huge illuminated slinky and a giant moon apparently removed from its orbit and lassoed to a boat.
A 50m long multi-sensory walkway by Kent-based Lucid Creates, is designed to distort reality, creating shifts in time and space, exploring the contrast between light and dark using strobes of light.
The heartbeats of over 65 Aberdonians, a sprawling illuminated fungal network and a virtual exhibition by artist Craig Barrowman and local artists that transforms public space into an immersive experience using a smartphone and the Northern Lights AR app can also be enjoyed.
A specially commissioned art piece by Aberdeen Art Gallery and Scottish artist, Council Baby, will take pride of place in the Gallery’s magnificent Sculpture Court area which will see a large-scale video installation projection comprising of four striking stained-glass designs which have been inspired by works in the city’s collection and visits to the area, with each animated panel capturing different aspects of Aberdeen’s rich history.
The iconic ABERDEEN letters by Aberdeen Inspired will feature a special design for the occasion at their new temporary residence outside of Marischal College for the duration of the festival.
Councillor Martin Greig, cultural spokesperson for Aberdeen City Council, said:
“Spectra is finally here and we cannot wait for visitors from the city and beyond to revel in the magic that this year’s festival offers. The planning for this year’s festival has been underway for months. A great deal of people have been working with the Council to make this event a success. There has been excellent collaboration with artists and local groups. All the preparation and hard work is going to create wonderful experiences for everyone to enjoy. The opening night is a very happy celebration of all the collective artistic activity.”
Installations Guide:
Northern Lights Programme, (Rosemount Viaduct – Opposite His Majesty’s Theatre)
Visitors are invited to journey into an imaginary world with Northern Lights. Led by artist Craig Barrowman, along with a commissioned line-up of five artists connected to the northeast, this eclectic virtual exhibition transforms public space into an immersive experience.
Using a smartphone and the Northern Lights AR app, audiences can explore an alternate dimension by unlocking interactive artworks within a ring of ‘doorways’ situated on Rosemount Viaduct, directly in front of His Majesty’s Theatre.
- Inspired by SPECTRA, (Union Terrace Gardens)
Illuminated artwork produced by school and community groups – inspired by the SPECTRA 2025 installations.
- Heinrich & Palmer – Winds of Change, (Union Terrace Gardens)
Set against a backdrop of Scottish wind farms and the oil rigs of the Cromarty Firth, ‘Winds of Change’ journeys through aspects of Aberdeen’s unique maritime and industrial story from tall ships and granite, to oil and the transition towards renewable energy and wind power. The artwork combines video footage and stop frame animation with 3D animated sequences of point clouds created from photogrammetry of key artefacts from the city’s heritage collection.
The film draws on the folklore of a three knotted rope which was sold by witches to sailors to control the wind whilst a sea. The untying of one knot would release a breeze, the second a strong wind and the third a tempest.
This work was commissioned by Aberdeen City Council for Spectra 2024 – Scotland’s Festival of Light. ‘Winds of Change’ has now become part of the permanent collection of Aberdeen Archives Gallery & Museums.
- Illuminated Voices – Our Journey (Union Terrace Gardens)
Working with Scottish poet, author and educator Simon Lamb, pupils from Muirfild Primary School will be engaged to explore their own journey’s through poetry and prose. Produced works will be displayed in the arches at Union Terrace Gardens and via projection.
- idontloveyouanymore – The Matter of the Heart, (Union Terrace Gardens)
The Matter of The Heart is a collection of local hearts: 60 people and their real-time heart beats. Wherever they are now, together or apart, far away or near the artwork, their hearts will remain in one space, flashing together, in perfect time with their real life heartbeat. As an audience member you’re invited to walk among the flashing hearts, like a graveyard of the living, to allow the interconnectivity of life to light your path.
Created by artists and designers, idontloveyouanymore, from Manchester, The Matter of The Heart is a celebration of the human spirit, and a reminder of the power of community.
- Neon colouring wall, (Union Terrace Gardens)
Help to colour in artwork by Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford OBE. Watch the artwork come to life under the neon lights.
- ENESS – Sky Castle (Union Terrace Gardens)
Sky Castle is a dreamy, interactive sound and light installation, featuring a cluster of inflatable arches that span in colourful symphony across public space.
As guests move through the arches, their movement powers and progresses the melodic xylophone soundscape stimulating colour changes in each arch. Light, colour and music have been orchestrated to evoke the joy and hope that rainbows bring after every storm.
As more people join the journey, the contemporary score crescendos in intensity creating a lush, orchestral piece that is different every night as it responds to crowd flow and fluctuations.
- LEM – Universal Communication (Aberdeen Art Gallery)
Using a high-powered light beam pointed directly towards the sky, and the communication method of Morse Code, a message sharing our collective journey will be transmitted out to the universe. Moving at the speed of light and with the potential to theoretically travel indefinitely, where will our message end up and will it ever be responded too? Can you translate the morse code and work out our message?
LEM is an Aberdeen based creative production group, who are interested in exploring the interplay between technology and art.
- Storytelling (Cowdray Hall, Aberdeen Art Gallery)
Storytelling with Pauline and Lindsey in the magical setting of Aberdeen Art Gallery’s Cowdray Hall.
Pauline is a storyteller from the fishing and farming traditions of the North East of Scotland and enjoys telling a variety of traditional Scottish tales, fairy tales, folk tales creation myths and the occasional home-grown tale of her own. Since 2001 she has been involved in many storytelling events and projects which have allowed her to build on her enthusiasm for science, history and the environment.
Lindsey grew up in the West of Scotland surrounded by stories; listening to them, reading them and making them up and has constantly carried weaving stories into her various careers and at home. Lindsey enjoys telling a wide variety of stories, often with an environmental or wildlife theme. Journeys also feature strongly in Lindsey’s stories as they offer opportunities for adventure, cunning and the unexpected.
- Urban Hijackin – I caught a….(Aberdeen Art Gallery)
As night falls, you will discover the curiosities exhibited in a cage erected in the Art Gallery, including flying fish and mini elephants! Drawing inspiration from the idiosyncratic work of the Royal de Luxe street art company or Pierrick Sorin, Stéphane Masson has been spreading his offbeat humour in our lacklustre daily lives since 2004. The video artist signed his first project for the Festival of Lights Lyon in 2010 with the memorable Bisou. Since then, this inventive troublemaker has been an ambassador for the Festival of Lights and has ferried his weird installations from Brussels to Dubai and from Bucharest to Singapore.
- Council Baby – Fit D’You Know About the Bon Accord? (Aberdeen Art Gallery)
Award-winning artist Council Baby is the recipient of the 2022 Royal Scottish Academy Benno Schotz Prize for the most promising work by a Scottish artist under 35, for her ticket sculptures, The Best Thing to Come Out of Edinburgh is the Train to Glasgow.
Fit D’You Know About the Bon Accord?is a large-scale video installation, which incorporates animation and sound.
At the heart of the installation, the Celtic river goddess, Divona, guides viewers through the narrative, embodying Aberdeen’s evolution from its early days to its contemporary status. The goddess symbolises continuity and offers a vision of optimism for the future. The installation subverts traditional devotional religious iconography, using a medium – stained glass – that is typically expensive and fragile to comment on social progressiveness in an increasingly secular Scotland. Background elements of the design are taken from the city’s crest such as the three silver towers that represent the buildings of medieval Aberdeen—Aberdeen Castle on Castle Hill, the city gate on Port Hill, and a church on St. Catherine’s Hill, which morph into the modern high-rise flats Seamount Court, Greig Court, and Thistle Court, recognised for their architectural and historical significance.
- Double Take – Light & Colour (St Nicholas Kirk)
Embark on a vibrant maritime adventure with Voyage, a new projection-mapping artwork that transforms the historic Clock Tower of the Kirk of St Nicholas.
Inspired by the theme of ‘Journeys,’ the installation draws from Aberdeen’s rich seafaring heritage and the timeless allure of the sea.
Navigate ancient nautical maps and follow lighthouses as you dive into a series of captivating scenes; from mesmerising dazzle ship patterns, to enchanting underwater worlds that bring the ornate facade of the Kirk to life.
- Stevie Thompson – Mycelium Network (St Nicholas Kirk yard)
Mycelium network is an example of the hidden underground connections between mushrooms, plants and trees. Mycelium plays an important roll in protecting the environment and providing for humanity. Apart from providing us with food and medicine, mycelium can save and regenerate trees and plants after forest fires and they can even break down toxins in polluted soils and turn them into harmless by-products.
Stevie Thompson a light installation artist specialising in fibre optic lighting, founder of South Shields-based Custom Fibre Optics. He offers a range of exclusive and innovative lighting services and products that beautifully compliment a wide variety of interiors, gardens and architecture which give huge impact and wow factor.
- Stage of Light – Performance Area (St Nicholas roof garden – Bandstand)
A music programme will be delivered from the St Nicholas roof garden bandstand – becoming SPECTRA’s Stage of Light for the festival. The Stage of Light will showcase the amazing talents of singer songwriters from across the North East, and will provide an interesting and vibrant experience for all who attend SPECTRA in 2025.
- Studio Vertigo – Ursula Lassos the Moon (Marischal Square)
Brought to life by Newcastle-based Studio Vertigo, Ursula Lassos the Moon is a very realistic representation of the Moon, apparently removed from its orbit and lassoed to a boat. The high-definition 3D projection sphere reproduces surface details and textures that are normally only visible through access to a high-powered telescope. The Moon hovers in the air and rotates gently, while its crisp white projection casts a cool glowing light onto the ground.
The Moon has long been thought of as an enchanted and mysterious object and while no woman has yet stepped foot on the lunar surface, women have long been associated with the Moon. In western mythology it is often represented as female, and both have endured narratives of conquest throughout history.
Over 50 years since the first Moon landing, NASA have announced that its Artemis program will see the next footprint made by a woman. The artwork attempts to combine the natural beauty of the Moon with this narrative of mystery and capture reworked with a female protagonist named Ursula.
- Lucid Creates – Futures (Broad Street)
Brought to life by Kent-based Lucid Creates, FUTURES is an experimental audio-visual installation designed to distort reality, creating shifts in time and space, exploring the contrast between light and dark and its effect on the human perception of space.
It is a multi-sensory, multi-dimensional journey utilising the mediums of sound, light, dark, shadows, depth linearity and illusion – resulting in an evocative sonic and visual experience. Strobes of light shift and pulse along the 50m long walkway producing a visceral, transportative display of patterns that play with the viewer’s spatial awareness and perception of depth.
Once viewers enter the walkway they find themselves in a wholly new environment – a place where things are not as they appear, viewers begin to question the physical space around them, their sense of awareness is heightened as they begin to process an environment they cannot predict.
An ambient soundscape triggers the LED lights – abstract sound effects chase up and down the walkway, the audio is dispersed throughout the installation so that light and sound move as one, adding to the depth and multi-layered, sensory nature of the piece.
- Kumquat Labs – Reunion (Broad Street)
Reunion is a light art installation representing connectedness and the act of gathering people together. It takes the form of light arches which curve towards each other, signifying contact and connection. The rotating colour patterns are inspired by the movements of bodies revolving in a circle.
Edinburgh based artists, Kumquat Lab combine design, light and interactive technologies to create engaging artworks that bring public space to life.
- Studio Vertigo – End Over End (Marischal Square)
End Over End will see a gigantic illuminated slinky toy that lights up to create the movement of the nostalgic toy. Created by Newcastle-based Studio Vertigo, the artwork playfully transforms its environment into a virtual playground. Each coil of the oversized spring is illuminated in turn to create the familiar flowing form of a slinky tumbling end-over-end into the shadows. The oversized scale makes the viewer appear ‘smaller’ and the relationship between viewer, object and space is disrupted. Proportions between you and the ‘toy’ are reversed as if we have shrunk and somehow ended up in Alice’s Wonderland.
Studio Vertigo is a multidisciplinary design and fabrication studio lead by artists Lucy McDonnell and Stephen Newby which specialises in light installations and sculpture for international exhibition.
- Aberdeen Letters (Marischal College)
Big ABERDEEN letters…The ultimate selfie attraction, to be displayed at the front of Marischal College with event specific imagery.
20. Street Activation – Site Wide
Building on the highly successful street activation programme introduced in 2024, a variety of illuminated mesmerising acts will perform across the festival footprint to entertain and engage the audience. Festival favourites Citymove Dance Agency will be funded to produce a themed choreographed routine to perform each evening of the festival.
