Light up Ninja at Kowloon Park, Hong Kong

Light up Ninja at Kowloon Park, Hong Kong

Create Future City by Lantern !

2016.02.19-02.20　　Blanche Lam+Yin Yin Fung+Yuko Wong+Candy Cheung　

This is the first Lighting Detective event in Hong Kong! This workshop is led by 2015 Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism\ Architecture to explore people’s vision of Hong Kong nightscape. Over 150 participants take part in this meaningful workshop to create future city by lantern.

Beautiful lanterns created

Under Hong Kong edition of the 2015 Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture (the Biennale), Light up Ninja came to Kowloon Park to hold the lantern creating workshop. The theme of this year is ‘Visions 2050: Lifestyle and the Smart City’, we would like participants to play with Light and imagine Future City through Lantern Making. The vision of the younger generation is the key for creating the city of the future. We encourage kids and adults to create and express the future through lantern making. Participants would enjoy their lantern display and find out comfortable relation between Light and Shadow at Kowloon Park. We had three workshops which were for university students, kids and open to public. Over 150 participants created lanterns to share their ideas during the workshop. (Yuko Wong)

■Day 1: Student Workshop /Lantern Creating Workshop.

Several Tertiary and University students came to Kowloon Park and joined this workshop.
After the speech from Mr. Paul Chu, the representative of Hong Kong Institute of Architects Biennale Foundation and LPA’s brief introduction, students were eager to create their own future nightscape lanterns, several LPA staff also joined in.
Participants made lantern by using plastic mesh sheets, silver ribbed paper and aluminum sheets, which were turned into lanterns of varying shapes and colours.
Even though the weather was not good all participants enjoyed lantern-making. Many of the lanterns were visually interesting and creative, which aroused the interest of many passers-by who were keen to know what Light-up Ninja is all about.
Once the lanterns were made, participants displayed their own lantern along the street side. It lighted up and created a warm feeling in such light rainy day in Kowloon Park.
(Candy Cheung)

Making the lantern with reflective material

Wrapping wires to create a organic lantern form

Lantern displayed on stand

■Day 2 Afternoon: Kids Workshop

It was the second day of this workshop as well as the last day. Luckily, it was a sunny day. We had two sections held in afternoon for the registered kids and one at night for public. This was a good platform to share your thoughts on future city.

In kid’s workshop, we prepared lots of colourful materials to draw their attention, such as paper, films, sequins, pens, sticker sheets etc. The children preferred to use transparent sticker sheets and colour films also liked to paint. Colour films under sunshine created special interesting effect.

Children discussed with their parents closely. Their parents helped and guided their kids while parents made their own lantern. Although it was not obvious for the light in day time, they still enjoyed in the workshop. (Blanche Lam)

Children working together with parents

Little gilr who was concentrated on her work

Kids taking photos with their lanterns

■Day 2 Night: Public Workshop

The public workshop was held on Saturday, which was two days before Chinese Lantern Festival, therefore many families and couples were hanging out in Kowloon Park. As the sunlight ebbed away, the lanterns placed among the bushes lighted up and embellished the park’s environment. They fascinated many passers-by to slow down and took photos of the creative lanterns, moreover, lots of people were very willing to join the public workshop to create their own lanterns.

During this session, apart from couples, teenagers, local families with kids, parents and seniors, some tourists from other countries also took part in the activity.

Generally speaking, people took around half an hour to finish their design, they were quite efficient. Lanterns made by people from different cultural background carried diverse characterizes, we were very happy for the outcomes. Everyone was satisfied and glad to take photos with their lanterns. At the end, most participants would like to take the lanterns with them and walk around the park. It was interesting to see our lanterns all over the area. (Yin Yin Fung)

Organized by
The Lighitng Detectives Hong Kong
UABBHK

Supported by
Light In Motion (L.I.M)