Held in her own hometown of Abbots Langley, UK, Kristina Allison, SLL President Elect, organised a Remembrance-themed edition of Pockets of Light, hoping to inspire a future generation of lighting designers.

This November, the Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) brought its popular Pockets of Light event to the small village of Abbots Langley, situated just outside Watford, UK.

Pockets of Light, for those not in the know, is an event based around bringing lighting to the next generation through engagement with schools.

The pop-up event aims to provide pupils of varying ages the opportunity to engage with lighting equipment to test out their effects, before setting them a task to design a lighting scheme for a building façade, which is then brought to life by supporting lighting designers and manufacturers.

Pockets of Light, as an event, was made famous by the UK-wide Night of Heritage Light event in 2015, led by Liz Peck. It has since been delivered at a number of locations, by different people with different schools all around the UK.

Rather than being fixed annual events, Pockets of Light are instead down to individuals or teams with a drive to undertake the event and go into schools to talk about light and lighting design. This year, Kristina Allison, Environmental, Sustainability and Net-Zero Lighting Capability Lead at WSP, and President-Elect of the SLL, felt that drive, and decided to bring the event to her own hometown of Abbots Langley.

Speaking with arc, Allison says: “Last year, after seeing all the wonderful photographs from Light Night Leeds, led by David Battersby (Gamma Illumination) and Dan Lister (Arup), I wanted to have a go at doing my own version of Pockets of Light in my local community, at St Lawrence Church in Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire.

Typically, although not always, Pockets of Light events have been hosted at churches or cathedrals – “the intricate nature of the architecture lends themselves nicely to being artistically lit,” Allison adds. So, with this in mind, and armed with an array of beautiful photos of past PoL events, she set to work to get the local community on board with the event.

“Initially, I contacted the St. Lawrence Church, and they were very receptive to the idea. The next critical step was to have the involvement of the local schools; I reached out to Parmiters, St. Michael’s Catholic High School, and Future Academies Watford, who are all close to the village.

“I pitched the idea of the STEM lesson and the Pockets of Light event, and all were keen to be a part of it. It is a bit of a challenge to get through to the right people at the school and hope that they will be receptive to the idea. It was my aim to provide the STEM lessons in lighting design for secondary school-aged pupils. I think this is an important time in education, and a time when we start making decisions about what we might like to do after school life and for a career. I also feel that this is the time where school pupils will have had little to no exposure to lighting as a career option. This is often confirmed when asking a lighting professional now ‘how did you get into lighting?’.

“There was an extra special part in making this all happen – very close to the village is the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in Leavesden. Again, I managed to get in contact with the right people and pitched the idea. Keen to support the local community, Warner Brothers offered to fund the event and to give tickets for the Harry Potter Experience tour to the design winners.

“All the wonderful people and companies who contributed to the STEM lessons and the event were so willing to support me in making this event happen. I think this is maybe for a few reasons – firstly, because people are nice generally and like to help in STEM community projects; and secondly, because the creative arts industry isn’t so well funded by government, the community (both at large, and the lighting community) step in to make things like this happen.”

As the event was held in early November, Allison and the involved parties settled on a theme of ‘Remembering Remembrance’. “I discussed theme ideas with the village church, and we thought, if there were to be a theme, what could it be? We all agreed that the event would be held the evening before Remembrance Sunday, so the timing of it would suit the theme of remembrance too,” explains Allison.

“And as St Lawrence Church is an 800-year-old Saxon church, with a lot of architectural interest and a rich history with a war memorial at the front, it seemed like the perfect theme for this Pockets of Light.”

With a theme in place, Allison prepared a STEM lesson presentation, covering the fundamentals of lighting, lighting techniques, materials and textures, and examples of how to apply them. The lessons were delivered to 76 GCSE year 10 and year 11 age pupils (14-16 year olds) who, Allison says, were “so curious and engaged with the lighting equipment laid out on the workshop benches”.

“Having the opportunity to explore the lighting products, what they did, and the lighting effects they created was new to them – it was exciting.”

The event was supported by lighting manufacturers Architainment, Architectural FX, iGuzzini, Martin Architectural, Tryka, Urbis, and Thorlux – all of which supplied equipment for the STEM lessons and event. Matthew Wright from Martin Architectural joined Allison on one of the lessons, bringing with him a moving gobo projector. “The pupils loved seeing the colourful patterns projected onto the otherwise plain wall,” Allison recalls.

“After the lighting design lesson, they then experimented with the lighting equipment I set up for them to play around with. I set them a task to sketch their design ideas onto line drawings of the church façades that I had pprepared on paper, and illustrate the lighting techniques they’d learnt during the lesson.

“This is another key part in STEM and Pockets of Light – having the unique opportunity to play with lighting, to understand how light behaves and explore the effects that can be made. Once the school STEM tour was finished, the designs were then reviewed based on creative, technical, theme, and buildability merit, with four winning façade lighting designs selected to realise as part of the event.”

Allison selected four winning designs alongside a team of lighting professionals that included Matthew Wright and Sean O’Callaghan, Martin Architectural; Juan Ferrari, Hoare Lea; Ryan Rolph, Tryka; Helen Loomes, SLL; Simon Fisher, FMark; and Scott Pengelly, Urbis Schréder.

It was with the support and coordination of this team that the lighting equipment needed to realise the winning designs was pulled together on time. After a day of setting up, the event itself was a big success, and Allison was overwhelmed with the support that it received from the local community.

“Light has that ability to bring people and communities together, this was clear on the night of the event, where more than 200 people from the local areas came out on a cold November evening to see the creativity on display,” she says.

“Following the event, I have received many positive comments too – the schoolteachers and the pupils came along to see their creations realised and were thrilled; the church commented on how it had ‘once again put the church at the heart of the community’. Another particularly poignant comment I overheard on the night was that it ‘nearly brought me to tears’ – the theme of remembrance combined with the wonderful designs from school pupils really hit a chord with the public on the night.”

Immediately following the event, Allison recalls that she felt “a bit taken aback”, left reeling from the organisation that went into the event, but also the overwhelming feedback that she received.

“So much thought and organisation had gone into pulling it all together, I was still taking it all in,” she says. “The photographs from the community were showing up on social media and on LinkedIn posts, it was beautiful how the lighting design community had supported me, and how the local community loved it. I’m still a bit in awe of all that were involved.

“I have been invited to go back to the schools, and the church is interested in hosting the event again, so from a community engagement perspective, all my hopes and goals for this Pockets of Light event have definitely been met. I hope someone else will see these photographs and, like I was, be inspired to take on the challenge and organise their own version of Pockets of Light.”

The chief aim for the event though, Allison feels, was to engage the next generation in the power and magic of lighting design – something that she feels was a big success.

“The ultimate goal was to pass on knowledge of light and lighting design to school age pupils, and to show them what a career in lighting might entail. Lighting is such a fascinating subject, including product design, creative, and also in technical ways.

“Maybe the lessons gave a general appreciation of the lighting used within our built environment, or hopefully planted a seed in a pupil’s mind for a future career in lighting.”

www.sll.org.uk