Enlighten 2016

Posted by Anura Samara, 5 March 2016

It’s been a few years since we’ve seen Enlighten but we’ve been hearing good things about the new Night Noodle Markets.

Enlighten itself hasn’t changed much – its the same concept of buildings around the Parliamentary Triangle painted with light. In some cases, the light is moving images, in other cases the light cycles through a set series of scenes. My favourite is the National Library – the tall columns are well designed for images. Old Parliament House is good but suffers from being separated from the other buildings and also too wide to be able to photograph well. You really do have to admire the artists who have to conceive of an artwork for a specific building and then translate that to multiple projectors which can seamlessly stitch them together.

The big change for us was the Night Noodle Markets. It’s not only a great way to sample a range of different foods down by the lake, but it also draws a crowd to the central area of Reconciliation Place – in previous years, people would just walk between the different buildings in darkness. Every night (we ended up going to the noodle markets on four nights!) there were lots of people there.

Connected to the markets were more light displays connecting the National Library with Questacon and also towards the National Gallery.

Overall, it just feels like Enlighten has grown into a bigger event which you can stay and enjoy, rather than just wandering around to look at the buildings.