Organized by Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and the Cultural Affairs Bureau, the Macao Light Festival 2021 is bringing to the city light installations, interactive games and projection mapping shows, under the theme “Travellers from Mars”. Held for the seventh year, it aims to cheer various communities across Macao and attract more visitors to the city, with the displays being held every night between 7 and 10 from 4 December to 2 January 2022.
This year, there will be four different projection mapping shows. Among the displays, one is brought by a team from Changsha, a City of Media Arts, with its display – “Original Flavour of Macao” which revolves around Macao’s food culture as a City of Gastronomy. It is the first time for the two members of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) to join hands to create a show at a location new to the Macao Light Festival, the Macao Science Center.
The opening ceremony took place at Macao Science Center, followed by the “Original Flavour of Macao” lighting up the exterior of this building. As one of the masterpieces by celebrated architect Ieoh Ming Pei, the Macao Science Center is an asymmetric conical metal structure, which brought great difficulty to present a projection mapping show on its surface.
As the first media arts work staged on an international art festival after being designated as the UCCN City of Media Arts, this show is mainly empowered by 3D Mapping technology. Employing parallel projection and perspective projection in computer graphics, it can break the physical barriers and convert any surface into a dynamic visual display, producing a strong visual impact when applied to a tall building.
Themed on Macao, a City of Gastronomy, the show uses food and other elements to present a heart-warming story ended up with happy family reunions. Boasting a new oriental aesthetics of simplicity, fashion and elegance, the team from Changsha led by Li Yan has made a name.
According to Li, her team also has engaged with other UCCN cities such as Lyon and Enghien-les-Bains in France. Changsha media arts are accelerating its progress in going global and opening up a new horizon of international exchange.
As a “City of Media Arts”, Changsha uses media arts to promote international cultural exchanges and present its local culture as well. She told the press that there would be two major projects present in Orange Isle next year.
Translated by 彭慧璇，汤伊然，王琼