In Cork City, a special event will be held under the Ignite banner. With the help of renowned visual artist Simon Mckeown, a dazzling display will come to life on the walls of the city. As daylight fades, the front of the College of Commerce will be lit up with a sophisticated light show, using advanced 3D mapping techniques to bring the building to life.
Artist Mckeown has 25 years of experience in the field and the Cork Ignite project sees him bringing together many of his skills and interests to produce a large-scale outdoor projection combined with movement, sound and theatre. It also highlights his ongoing work with disabled artists, with Mckeown himself a life-long sufferer of Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a severe brittle bone disease.
He has exhibited worldwide, including creating a project called Motion Disabled which used motion capture techniques to show the range of human body types and ways of moving, regardless of disabilities. The final video was projected onto buildings in 17 countries around the world, with the content quickly going viral.
Cork Ignite has been in the works for almost two years and is part of the national Ignite programme which is dedicated to showcasing the amazing artistic talent of people with disabilities. In Cork, Mckeown says: "My aim is to create, with my partners, a hugely exciting body of work in Cork and for this work to be seen as a fundamental stepping stone in the perception and production of art which touches on, or considers disability."