Adelaide Illuminated: Resonate Experience
Taking those first few steps into the gardens, I was overwhelmed by a strange sense of relief. Illuminate Adelaide has returned once again, casting light on the cold winter nights. The event, for those who are not aware of its origins, brings together art, music, technology, and invention from across Australia and the globe. The event hosts many different unique, free, and ticketed events, ranging from street art displays to ticketed shows to its most famous attractions, such as Resonate. Even the free displays are phenomenal and deserve an article; a walk down North Terrace at night this month is well worth it.
Beginning my Illuminate Adelaide experience, I visited the Resonate exhibition at the Botanical Gardens on 11 July from 8pm, the perfect time to visit. I would recommend that before attending any of the events, you ensure you have warm clothing, as the Antarctic chill in the air alone is enough to deliver frostbite. Walking into the main entrance, you are confronted with this large, incredibly mystical sign with loud futuristic music, immediately placing oneself into a trance. This sign, best described as one of those S signs from primary schools, projected a bright spinning light that reverberated across the gardens. Eventually I broke free and explored further into the gardens; however, despite the large crowd of people, I was able to find something amazing. Deep in the lake were light rods stretching from the bottom of the Botanical Gardens lakes, each making their own unique noise as lights randomly pulsated through the lake. These magical lights caught everyone's attention at a glance, and despite only going for a three-minute loop, they continued to capture me and everyone else for multiple loops on end.
I next entered an area known as ‘Transformations.' This area blew my mind away. Without disclosing too much information (the experience of entering Transformations is better understood experienced than written), made one feel as if they had entered a Jurassic Park film, coming to save the day (fitting given the recent dinosaur exhibits at the Botanical Gardens). Moving into ‘Belonging,’ it could best be described as an episode of In the Night Garden. The entire section of the garden was lit up, with tiny little mushroom-resembling lights that delivered this mystical experience. Entering the Conservatory for ‘Winterings’ created this shared fever dream for me and the crowd. The Conservatory was filled completely with smoke, colourful lights and this eerie but also hopeful futuristic music. The addition of the disco ball lights evoked this extraordinary sensory feeling, that made one feel as if they were physically connected to the display.
However, following the Conservatory, the display ‘Memories’ was unfortunately not as favourable as compared to its predecessors. The display simply consisted of this bonfire area, with fire replaced by a large laser light that pointed directly into the sky. The display was largely underwhelming, as its appeal quickly fell as it was literally just a laser pointing at the sky. Despite this, fortunately, ‘Aliveness’ brought back the life that was succeeded by Memories. Aliveness featured this Asian-style futuristic music, with lights being projected to transform a tree into multiple different types. It was incredibly fascinating, with each beat of the music causing the tree to do all these different types of colours.
If you are wondering which ticketed exhibition to go to for Illuminate Adelaide, I must highly recommend Resonate. Firstly, being able to explore the Adelaide Botanical Gardens at night is a surreal and comforting experience, reminding one of their own childhood sleepover parties. Secondly, Resonate summarises quite literally the point of what Illuminate Adelaide is: it’s a combination of the arts, music, technology, and invention to create this colour display for its audiences. Each of the exhibitions showcases its own unique story, which cannot be replicated by another exhibition. After all, to experience Illuminate Adelaide, one must be able to resonate.