EIF – Anything That Gives Off Light Project


Anything That Gives Off Light Project
Edinburgh International Festival


The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), along with a team of writers and visual artists, worked with 24 schools (appoximately 1000 Primary Seven pupils) throughout the city of Edinburgh to create the Anything That Gives Off Light Project.

Inspired by a play of the same name, students explored the themes of the production through creative writing and by painting figurines. The figurines acted as avatars – representations of the students who made them, positioned into poses that expressed who they are.

We were approached by EIF to design, fabricate and install all 1000 figurines within the challenging setting of the Scottish Parliament Ponds. We made a series of triangular plinths of varying heights, to which the figurines were bolted. The shape of the ponds and the iconic architecture of the Scottish Parliament building inspired the triangular plinth design.

HI-MACs, a waterproof natural acrylic stone was used for the plinth construction. This was supported by a riveted aluminium substructure. A series of semi-submerged stainless steel lecterns, incorporating pupil’s creative writing accompanied the installation.

Materials:

Hi-Mac acrylic stone
Aluminium
Stainless Steel
Birch Plywood