AE Goes International - Lights in Alingsås

AE Design’s Valerie Insardi recently joined a group of international designers coming together in Alingsås, Sweden for one of the biggest lighting design festivals in the world. This year’s 25^th anniversary celebration of Lights in Alingsås drew a record 90,000 visitors coming together to celebrate light, storytelling, community, and mentorship. Read our interview with Valerie below to learn about this hands-on, multi-cultural event!

What is Lights in Alingsås, and why were you interested in attending?

VI: Lights in Alingsås is many things at once: a community festival, a celebration of lighting design, an advocacy event for sustainable energy use, and a forum for international collaboration in the industry. But the piece that made me interested in applying was the opportunity to mentor students and pass on knowledge and experience to the next generation of designers. I’ve had a lot of great mentors in my career, and I was excited to pass that on. I have a background in theatrical lighting design that informs a lot of the way I think about architectural lighting, and it was fun to work with students from diverse backgrounds on an immersive event that called on both those experiences.

How does the process work?

I’m one of seven workshop heads who are given a section of the city to bring to life for the festival. We were given a loose concept of “the magical world of mythology” to interpret, which made for some interesting conversations about folklore and mythology from all over the world. We gathered for concept meetings and introductions earlier this year and got to share our unique perspectives. Some of the designers are really influenced by history, some by sustainability, some from a fine art lens, and some seeking industry advocacy in their home countries. With such a diverse group, there was a lot to learn that I’m already bringing back to my work at AE Design.

Our concepts had to be flexible enough to let our student designers have creative input once they got on site, so we developed rough ideas and then in October we got to work with each student group. From my theatrical background, I know the importance of having hands-on experiences trying out different fixtures in real space and seeing what their effects are. Because much of the equipment for the festival is donated, we had to get creative with our combinations to achieve the look we wanted. We also got the unique experience of working with a composer who wrote original music and soundscapes for each area of the festival – the students got to design lighting controls to sync with the music. Ultimately the goal is to show students the full design process from concept to installation – they were very engaged and proud of the results.

What was it like spending time with designers from all over the world?

There are definitely cultural differences in the way we work. Some stereotypes about Americans are true – we do tend to work long hours! But the festival has a deep commitment to hospitality and cares for the designers and the students during the intensive schedule. It was also fascinating to see what lighting designer careers look like around the world. Some of my peers are from countries where it is a newly emerging field, and some are from places where the scale of their projects is bigger than anything in the U.S. It reinforced for me that we need to understand our users and clients as people in order to deliver successful work, no matter the project type or scale.

How is festival lighting compared to architectural lighting?

Like any project, you need to consider the client’s needs. And in this case, our client was the city of Alingsås and all the visitors who attend. This is a huge part of their economy, and there are things that visitors like to see every year, especially in the age of social media. The festival is set up with a variety of scenes that visitors walk through- so in that way it is like architectural lighting. In theatrical design, typically the audience is static, whereas in architecture the audience is moving throughout the space. This kind of experiential design combines those approaches to create an immersive experience. We used a lot of architectural fixtures, but sometimes in creative ways resulting in unusual effects. And of course, the amount of color and movement visitors like for a festival is going to be busier than most architectural projects. But ultimately, a strong concept phase with a deep understanding of the goals serves any kind of lighting project well.