The Romans built Hadrian's wall to keep those troublesome Scots out of England some two millennia ago. Ever since it has been a symbol of division, until now at least.
Zachary Lieberman the New York based light artist and his outfit
YesYesNo are planning to turn the wall into a way of connecting people through the medium of light.
A series of illuminated balloons 5m above the wall, each containing LED lights, will flash signals across the country from coast to coast. At least one English newspaper thoughtlessly described the idea as; “a far cry from the torches borne by Roman soldiers who scared off the northern tribes here two millennia ago.” I am not so sure. It seems like a very similar system of communicating messages with fired beacons across the countryside that the soldiers would have used... only this time the beacons are a bit more high-tec.
Either way, it promises to be a quite beautiful spectacle if you can get there to see it.
Connecting Light is one of the
London 2012 cultural events and is to be held between the 31
st August and 1
st September.
