Festival of Lights

Festival of lights


Herald Review August 3, 2014 


The Story of Light Festival, a unique festival that is a cross between a science and art festival, is slated to take place in Goa in January 2015 A screenshot of the festival website

LISA ANN MONTEIRO

In a welcome change from the hordes of music festivals being held during the winter months in the state, a motley group of intelligent, artistic and enthusiastic individuals have conceptualised the first- of- its- kind The Story of Light Festival to be held in January next year.

The idea for the festival came to Jaya Ramchandani when she was studying astronomy in the Netherlands. Fascinated by concepts and laws in Quantum physics, she was disheartened to find that these were all simply confined to books and weren’t reaching the general public.

It was this, together with a certain dissatisfaction with the education system, which urged her to share her knowledge using non- conventional means with others. She initially decided to conduct a series dedicated to children to dispel certain myths about science, but later felt the need to reach out to a wider audience.

The five- day festival, beginning January 14, focusing on light will have four main themes.

‘ Light and life’ which will explore light as a universal symbol of life and its role in our culture, architecture and religion. ‘ Seeing and Perceiving’ will focus on light and vision and its myriad connections to perception of reality. The ‘ Our Universe’ theme will follow the journey of light and give one a clearer picture about abstract themes like infinity. The ‘ Light in Technology’ theme will highlight how humans have exploited light from radio waves to gamma rays.

What’s attractive about the festival is that there are no long, tedious and uninteresting sessions scheduled, where formulae and abstract concepts will be thrown at the participants. “ We’re trying to make each session a collaboration between two experts- a scientist and an artist for example. Artists are the right people to turn education into an engaging and enlightening experience.

We don’t want people to have a passive experience at the festival. We want them to be able to touch, experience and play around with various things. We want education to happen without people knowing it and this can only happen when they’re having fun. Hence the highlight of the festival will be its interactive workshops, screenings, performances, installations and exhibitions,” Tanushri Shukla, one of the hosts, says.

A digital product manager and entrepreneur, Shukla confesses to hating science when she was in school. She later found that it had the same truths to reveal as spirituality and philosophy, only in a different language.

She promises the festival will break notions about how dull science can be. Participants will be able to relate to the concepts and see its applicability in their daily lives.

At other festivals, ‘ light’ is spoken of in terms of technology. Here the ‘ light’ is used almost metaphorically, touching all aspects from philosophy to culture and religion. It is the first time that a festival will be held where cross disciplinary scientists, artists and philosophers among others will share ideas and communicate on all aspects of light.

“ We’ve seen science festivals and we’ve also seen art festivals, but we’ve not seen an intersection of the two,” Shukla says.

The host thought of light as it is the most democratic and cuts across all schools of thought, culture, religion and affects each one of us directly.

The festival is well timed as 2015 has been declared the International Year of Light by the United Nations.

Artists from Japan, Netherlands and Brazil have recently signed up and the hosts expect around 50,000 people to attend the festival.

A walking route has been planned through Panjim from the Goa Science Centre to Kala Academy and to the Immaculate conception Church with light installations, exhibitions and performances.

The sessions will take place from January 14 to 18, while the exhibitions will be on until the end of the month. The festival has no entry fee and is open to all.

The hosts are seeking proposals from scientists, artists and others for workshops, talks and screenings.Review Bureau