138 TECHNOLOGY / LED CASE STUDY 1879
1912 1894
Eight electric lights are placed on the seafront.
Blackpool Tower opens to the public after two years of construction.
Lights are used to mark the visit of Princess Louise. The 10,000 lamps festooned over the pier are so popular that they are brought back the next year.
1919 1939
1949 1953
1955
The Illuminations return after the First World War and boost business.
The outbreak of WW2 causes the cancelation of festivities.
The lights return with film star Anna Neagle doing the honours.
The FA Cup is won by Blackpool F.C. for the only time. The victory over Bolton is immortalised in light.
Blackpool attempts Cold War diplomacy. Jacob Malik the Soviet Ambassador flicks the switch with a dose of Russian propaganda.
1959
1968 1981
The Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield, dubbed the workingman’s Marilyn Monroe, draws huge crowds to the town.
Sir Matt Busby flicks the switch months after Manchester United win the European Cup.
In the year of her wedding Lady Diana’s parents are guests.
2000
2012 1995
The Illuminations stay lit into the New Year to mark the millennium, as Westlife flick the famous switch.
LEDs are used for the first time, in a display titled Fright Lights, in the year the Bee Gees do the honours.
The centenary of the lights is celebrated as gold medal winners from the 2012 Olympic Games are guests of honour.
specifications from the first Illuminations in the 1920s. “They were all on black paper,” Berry says, “luminous beautiful drawings of, say, a pack of cards or a cat jumping on a wall.” Berry designed five different pylons, with each flute having a different theme and design, while keeping the original shape of the 1930s versions in place. The LEDs were designed especially for the Blackpool Illuminations, with 28 x1W lamps being used in each pylon and 700 LEDs being used overall. Panels of Perspex were also utilised for the project as well as an opal diffuser placed inside creating a “sandwich of Perspex lit from the inside with LED”. LED light is a material which Berry keeps returning to for her art work, in the past she has created a number of vibrant light boxes using LED, and plans to continue using the technology in the future. “LED luminaires are very light,” says Berry, you can put them where ever you need them within a space or an object, so you can have an even spread of light.” Berry is also inspired by the effect light can have on a piece of art work, “I use layers of colours in my projects,” she says, “and lazer cut Perspex, so the work is like a picture, a set piece of artwork, and light brings the picture alive, it isn’t alive until it’s lit.” Over the century the Blackpool Illuminations have specialised in bringing icons, celebrities, soap stars and cartoon characters to life in light. Arguably you haven’t made it into the British pop culture lexicon, unless you have either been immortalised in light on the Blackpool seafront, or been invited to flick the famous switch which fires the Illuminations into
life.The list of luminaries who have had the honour of carrying out this particular task
makes for interesting reading and offers an excellent snapshot of British celebrity culture over the century. There is the odd timeless icon like Jayne Mansfield (1959), Gracie Fields (1964) or Sir Matt Busby (1968), but mostly those that flicked the switch were the popular celebrities of their day, here today and gone tomorrow types, that although forgotten now, were highly likely to pull a crowd in their day. Who remembers Gilbert Harding (1954) for example, a television personality from the 1950s most famous for his appearances on the TV panel show ‘What’s My Line’. In a few decades time the same bafflement will probably be caused by the mention of names such as Dale Winton (2006) or Alan Carr (2009), but the same populist streak which ran through the list during the 1950s, remains consistent, even if todays luminaries do lack something of the same aura of Sir Stanley Mathews (1951) or Janet Munro (1960).
“The Illuminations have always moved with the times,” says Ryan, “there are still some aspects of the lights which are very traditional and endearing to some because of the happy memories they evoke and people still come because they like the tradition, but they also see new things which they haven’t seen before,” Ryan adds. Blackpool embraced street art in 2012 and plans greater things still for 2013.“We’ve had a very good season this year, it goes up and down a bit from time to time, but the Illuminations seem to be timeless,” Ryan concludes. It is true that traditions come and go, but the Blackpool Illuminations appear intent on staying ahead of the curve and remaining relevant.
www.blackpool-illuminations.net
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