It Has Been An Event,

for the past seven years,

 the Amsterdam Light Festival invited visitors to observe 29 light-based works by international artists, designers, and architects along the canals and throughout the historical center of the city, above OGE Group, “Light a Wish,” Amsterdam Light Festival 2018, all images © Janus van den Eijnden, 

 Alicia Eggert, “All the Light You See”

 Frank Foole, “Waiting”

 Gali May Lucas, “Absorbed by Light”

 Jeroen Henneman, “Two Lamps”

 Michela Bonzi, “Antenna Sud”

 Peter Vink, “Mr. J.J. van der Veldebrug”

Ivana Jelić & Pavle Petrović, “Starry Night” this past month Artworks were inspired by this year’s theme, a quote from media scientist Marshall McLuhan: “The medium is the message.” the Amsterdam Light Festival continues to light up the city through January 20, 2019, You can see more documentation of this year’s festival on their website, it seems that light shows are getting to be getting more popular, I had not heard of them a few years ago, just firework displays.

If You Are In Or Near Amsterdam, Holland,

you still have a more than a few days to view,

this year’s Amsterdam Light Festival, running from November 28, 2019, to January 19, 2020, above “Butterfly Effect” by Masamichi Shimada, all photographs, © Janus van den Eijnden,

   “Butterfly Effect” by Masamichi Shimada, the festival, now in its eighth year, attracts tourists and engages locals at a time when the city is cloaked in darkness for about sixteen hours each day,

“Nacht Tekening” by Krijn de Koning, 

“Big Bang” by UxU Studio, visitors to the Light Festival use a phone app to guide themselves through Amsterdam’s city center,

 “Big Bang” by UxU Studio, this year’s show theme was “DISRUPT!” and artists reflected the concept in pieces that ruminate on climate change, national history, technology, and more,

“Atlantis” by Utskottet, You can explore the full line-up and programming on the Amsterdam Light Festival website, just remember to wrap up warm! as an aside we have featured the festival a number of times before.

I Had Never Heard Of Radioactive Glass Before,

then in two days I read two articles about it, 

the first was about canary glass, uranium glass, or Vaseline glass, as it became known in the early 20th century for its similar colour to petroleum jelly, it emits radiation, but the amounts are tiny, infinitesimal, ridiculously small, I did not realise it but the manufacture and hobby of collecting this type of glass is huge, the point about this type of glass is that when you expose it to black light it's true colour is illuminated,

 then the next day I read about artist Victor Engbers who built a greenhouse for the Amsterdam Light Festival out of uranium glass,

how strange, one day never heard of uranium glass, next day two articles about it, in case you are interested in the light festival it is open until January 22nd. but as always double check before travelling. 

If You Are Looking For Somewhere To Visit,

as the evenings get darker,

you might consider popping into Amsterdam, for the 7th Amsterdam Light Festival, that runs from 29 November 2018 through to 20 January 2019, so plenty of time to see the show, and here a few of the displays that you can see, above by Peter Koros Design, 

 Light a Wish by OGE Group

 Parabolic Lightcloud by amigo & amigo

 Portam Civitatis by Peter Snijder

Spider on the bridge by Groupe LAPS, I would love to see this one, 

 the giant spider is actually made from 80 individual spiders,

and the light effects give the illusion that the spiders are crawling over each other, thanks Sanne!

What A Neat Interaction,

between water and light,

 at the Amsterdam Light Festival, Romanian-based architecture collective visualSKIN installed a three-dimensional projection of a 17-century ship against a backdrop of water, titled ‘Ghost Ship,‘ the installation makes use of two intersecting images projected onto perpendicular curtains of water that can be viewed from multiple angles, 

the piece is in reference to a Dutch East India Company ship, The Amsterdam, that was wrecked in a storm during its maiden voyage to Batavia in 1749, what a neat way to use water and light.