Nottingham-built Timisien lights up Lakeside Arts
Timisien, the largest Luminarium by Architects of Air, is open at Lakeside Arts this week. The walk-in light installation was handmade in St Ann's and offers SEND sessions and adults-only timeslots.
Morning briefing Nottingham
Temperature
19° to 34°C
Rain
Dry today
Wind
Gusts 20 mph
Sunset
21:10
Ride details Good to ride
Recommended gear
- Light layers
Best times to ride
Windy today
- 06 19°
- 09 22°
- 12 28°
- 15 34°
- 18 34°
- 21 30°
The largest of the Luminarium air-filled structures, Timisien, is being exhibited this week at Lakeside Arts.
Luminarium are often quite large installations - large enough to walk around in. Timisien has twenty-one chambers, including the entrance chamber, each with walls of a thin membrane of plastic. Varying the transparency of that fabric gives the designer complete control over the light entering the space inside. This playing with light is the remarkable thing about the display: vivid bursts of coloured rays allow for a floating, wondrous feeling whilst walking around.
Architects of Air are the designers and builders of the many Luminarium that now tour the world, but all are built by hand in the Oldknows Factory in St Ann's (which happens to also be the home of the Morning Briefing). This one was built for the city Timișoara in Romania during its European City of Culture period. Due to the COVID epidemic, it didn't get to Romania until much later than planned.
In its standard configuration (which is slightly altered for the Lakeside Arts location) Timisien takes up a space of 28 metres by 50 metres, with an 8.5 metre height. It's entirely made from plastic sheets which have been cut and glued together by hand. No sewing machines or welding devices involved.
Visitors are given a twenty minute timeslot to walk around the space, which the Briefing discovered is ideal. Walking shoeless around the almost alien halls is quite a relaxing, fun experience, whilst wondering what is in the next chamber. It's quite easy to get lost within the hall-of-mirror-like passageways, so stumbling across a different room is a little magical.
It does get quite warm inside, with Lakeside Arts staff on hand to spray water if requested (though, it wasn't necessary on the day). The ground is smooth but in some cases uneven and difficult to tell due to the ethereal nature of the place, so take steps steadily. The experience is quite wheelchair friendly, so long as you're willing for your wheels to get a quick brush down first.
Tickets are £6.50 from the Lakeside Arts website, with timeslots running throughout the rest of the week. On Tuesday and Wednesday there sessions appropriate for SEND needs. On Thursday, there are a number of adults-only timeslots, to enjoy the space without children running around.
