Press Release
Maritime Glow Exhibition Events by Kaohsiung City Government Receives the Golden A' Design Award in Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design
The international grand jury of the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Kaohsiung City Government for performing arts, stage, style and scenery design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 20, 2023 /DesignNewswire/ Maritime Glow Exhibition Events by Kaohsiung City Government, designed for Bureau of Cultural Affairs, has been granted the Golden A' Design Award in the Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design category, A' Design Award & Competition has announced. The result belongs to the 2022 - 2023 A' Design Award & Competition and was determined through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who assessed anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
About the Golden A' Design Award
The Gold A' Design Award is granted to designs that demonstrate a high level of innovation and a significant impact on their intended audience. Recognized as a major achievement by the A' Design Awards, these designs are characterized by their visionary approach and the exceptional skill of their creators. Winners of the Gold A' Design Award are noted for their ability to push the envelope in art, science, design, and technology, delivering solutions that not only meet but exceed expectations. These designs serve as benchmarks for excellence, encouraging further innovation and inspiring future generations of designers.
Regarding Maritime Glow Exhibition Events
Maritime Glow is a large-scale outdoor performing arts production created for a lantern festival in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The Love River acts as the stage and the open sky serves as the curtain. Projection technology transforms the stage into a boat, and 400 lights present 381 meters of visual images. Local opera, Taiwanese rock, Hakka music, indigenous songs, musical theatre, traditional martial arts and dance are combined in one show. More than 600 performers from eleven groups and two schools take part. The story presents the past, present and future of Kaohsiung.
About Kaohsiung City Government
Did you see a whale loitering in the ocean? Or did you see Taiwan surrounded by warm waves? Taiwan is called "Kun Island", which means "Island of Whales" In ancient mythology, "Kun" refers to a large fish in the sea If you take a boat and look at Taiwan from afar Like a giant whale swimming in the sea During the Dutch period, Taiwan also had an ancient name called "Hai Weng Cave". Ashore by boat The waves on the coast reflect the island so beautifully And this island called "Taiwan" Carrying the joys, sorrows, joys, joys, and sorrows of hundreds of years Therefore, it is said that if you can see a colorful whale The whole year ahead will be full of happiness!
Award Record
With this recognition, Kaohsiung City Government is a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design Award
The A' Performing Arts Design Award is an international competition recognizing excellence in set, stage, and performing arts design by top designers worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to performing arts designers, set designers, theater architects and costume designers from all countries. Entries typically include choreography, dance moves, theatrical sets, dance costumes, stage lighting and opera props. Awarded performing arts designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/performing-arts
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/142226
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/142226
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!142226
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/333919
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Maritime Glow Exhibition Events
- Function
- Exhibition Events
- Category
- Performing Arts, Stage, Style and Scenery Design
- Discipline
- Communication Design
- Industry
- Arts and Entertainment
- Colors
- Black, Saddle Brown, Dark Slate Gray and Sienna
- Images
- 5
- Client
- Bureau of Cultural Affairs
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Kaohsiung City Government
- Country
- Taiwan (China)
- Recognition
- Golden A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2022 - 2023
- Design ID
- #142226
Credits
- Team
- Shih Che, Dennis Che, Yichun Hsu, Hui Chen, Yi-Chien Chou
- Image Credits
- Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Kaohsiung City Government
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- In this project, local opera, Taiwanese rock, Hakka, Yu opera, indigenous ancient songs, a go-go, Taiwanese opera, musical theatre, traditional kung fu, pop dance, and other content are in place at once. As for the music, the team adopted a musical theatre approach to transform the same melody and integrate it into the performance forms, which played repeatedly to impress the audience. With the sky as the curtain and the world-class Weiwuying Theater as the stage, 'Maritime Glow' broke the boundary of performance.
- Inspiration
- During the 2022 Taiwan Lantern Festival in Kaohsiung event, the seven year incubation of Maritime Glow adopted the landmark of Kaohsiung city, the Love River, which is a river shared in everyone's memory, as the stage for the festival. The design team extended the story to the local culture and history, describing the prosperity, cultural conflicts, and industrial development of the island for a century. In this project, the design team linked the relationship between Kaohsiung and the sea, ships, and people with the imagery of ships and touching performances.
- Research
- This project was the first time in Taiwan that involves 11 groups and 2 schools, with over 600 performers in front of and behind the scenes. In the overture performance, each group sings its parts. The first generation of the troupe sings the first line while holding the oar in their hands, and the second generation takes over the oar from their hands when the second line was sung, symbolizing that 'Maritime Glow' was not only about Kaohsiung's past and future but also represents the inheritance of the performers. The design team has always been committed to promoting the culture of Taiwanese opera.
- Challenge
- The performance involved 11 groups and 2 schools, with over 600 performers. The most challenging part of such a large performance was the rehearsals. Especially during the epidemic and the Lunar New Year holiday, many projects had to be discussed online, which greatly compressed the rehearsal time. In addition, the final rehearsal time on site was also critical. To ensure the smooth operation of the entire lantern festival, the team of 600 people can only take four times late at night to grasp the rehearsal opportunities.
- Realization and Technology
- The 'boat' in the play refers to the carrier of great history, which implies the idea of moving forward at all times. On the other hand, 'love' refers to the temperature of the performance and the expectation for the next generation. In this play, the performance team presented the past, present, and future of Kaohsiung in a detailed and sophisticated way. People across the world have come to trade around the seas of Taiwan for 400 years. The river is still the same, it is time to raise the sails and head for the future, based on Taiwan and moving forward internationally.
- Operation and Interaction
- The design team transformed the main lantern of the Taiwan Lantern Festival into a play with virtual projection technology. The story of 'Boat Love' told the story of this land from 400 years ago to nowadays. The events in the story were all related to ships and the sea while the ships and harbors represent Kaohsiung's industry, culture, and history. The design team integrated the spirit and emotion of the island and ships into the story to describe the development of Kaohsiung. The brilliance of the play was not only to describe the history of Kaohsiung but also to make many breakthroughs in the performance format.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project started in May 2020 in Taiwan and finished in December 2021 in Taiwan.
- Specifications
- 20 sets of 30,000 lumens and 70,000 sets of 20,000 lumens projection equipment linked with 400 dazzling lights presented 381 meters of visual images, creating the largest scale of performing arts in Taiwan. When the audience was in the venue, the L-shaped gigantic stage surrounding them and the trees behind them also changed their lights as the play progressed, so they were enjoying a fully immersive experience. The spirit of the play, Cihou Lighthouse, was a replica of the original building, and even its lighting frequency was identical. The live streaming was filmed with four camera drones, and the total number of YouTube video views has exceeded one million as of March 2022.
- Keywords
- Maritime Glow, Kaohsiung, Weiwuying, Taiwanese Opera, Lantern Festival.
