Made In Lithgow is a permanent lighting artwork designed, fabricated and installed by Silver Bullet Projects in Cook Street Plaza, Lithgow, Australia.
The aim is to turn the plaza into a canvas of interesting patterns and colour combinations that are a welcome sight to those arriving off the train or simply walking through this main plaza.
“The space was under-utilised and so the Council were looking at making it more of a gathering space,” commented Mark Hammer, Director of Silver Bullet Projects. “It also makes it a safer area without just using simple floodlights.”
The concept and design of Made In Lithgow were developed by Robbie Park, Lithgow Council’s events coordinator in consultation with the local traditional landowners, Lithgow Environment Group, local businesses, and Lithgow District Chamber of Commerce. Mark worked closely on the project with Robbie Park who designed the theme around showcasing the region with an emphasis on Indigenous, Industrial, Fauna and Future.
The project features four themed vertical trusses, each highlighting one of the four themes, with an overhead truss featuring chasing Vision Flex linking them.
“It was a fun project,” said Mark. “I was keen to add a gobo element as I wanted something to throw patterns and images across the floor rather than just colour. I was also keen to tie the lighting into the truss theme images with the use of the gobos. People love to walk through and interact with patterns on the ground plus it makes the installation more Instagram-worthy!”
Mark opted to use eight ShowPRO Aurora XGP Exterior outdoor-rated IP65 LED projectors with zoom. There are two fixtures atop each truss and as they have been painted the same colour as the truss, they blend effectively into their setting.
Mark says he chose the Auroras due to their incredible output, great zoom range (10°- 40°), robust build and excellent reputation for being waterproof!
“The output was very important so that when we zoomed out we still touched the ground,” added Mark. “The throw is only about 4 metres high but in that area, we wanted something quite wide. The footprint was another important factor as we didn’t want a fixture taking away from the actual installation. With their matched housing, they almost turn invisible.”
Mark was also impressed by the ‘all rounder’ Aurora’s slow yet smooth gobo rotation and its amazing value for money. Other features that make the ShowPRO Aurora XGP the ideal product for outdoor projects such as this are an ultra-efficient proprietary optical system, extremely even spot with flawless field consistency, rotating gobos, animation wheel, motorized focus, frost and prism.
Gobotech made the custom gobos whilst the timed scenes play back every night via an LED CTRL system.
