Urban light show highlights North American Indigenous Games

The old Halifax Memorial Library is aglow this week with portraits of athletes, coaches, volunteers and fans of the North American Indigenous Games. 

The show, which is around four minutes long, will be running on a loop from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. until Friday, July 21. It includes art, photography, music and the voices of athletes. It's updated daily and will run longer as more content is added.

The project is a collaboration between creators in Atlantic Canada, CBC East Coast and the CBC Creator Network.

The artwork

Most of the design elements in the show come from students in the Animation and Graphics Program at the New Brunswick Community College (NBCC) in Miramichi, N.B. The students worked with instructors and mentor Tara Audibert of Moxy Fox Studio on the project.

The students, who have since graduated, created the frames and props for a CBC photo booth during the North American Indigenous Games. It's located on the Halifax Common at the NAIG cultural village. They also animated the frames for social media. 

A selection of photos from the CBC photo booth will become part of the projection show each night. 

The music 

Evan Syliboy is behind the atmospheric music that accompanies the show. He plays lead guitar for Alan Syliboy & The Thundermakers (and is Alan's son).

For this piece, he wanted to create something celebratory. 

"I have a tendency to lean kind of darker, you know, in what I'm playing, what I'm thinking and creating," he said.

It was a shift to do this piece, which he says is "more optimistic and looking forward and just sort of celebrating where we [Indigenous peoples] are right now."

Lukas Pearse recorded and mixed the music. He's worked with Alan Syliboy & The Thundermakers for about eight years.

He has also worked on projections shows in Halifax for years. 

Pearse knew the music, which would be on a loop for hours, needed to be engaging and not too predictable. 

"We wanted something that was kind of triumphant, but not in a winner-takes-all way," said Pearse.

The final piece includes about eight layers of electric guitar. 

The projection 

Wasko AV is behind the projection. Owner and operator Nick Iwaskow worked on the project with Everett Stone, who also works at the company. 

For this project, they took the NBCC designs and built them out to fit the building and added movement. They also added original illustration and animation. 

"We kind of make it come to life through subtle motion."

This line of work helps Iwasko see Halifax in a new light. 

"A lot of the job is kind of looking for opportunity in underutilized spaces in the city and ... dreaming up some ways we might find to kind of breath new life in to them."

He hopes this show sparks interest in NAIG from people who might not know much about the event. 

"I really feel like the show we've put together kind of produces a feeling of community around the Games," he said.

For full coverage of the North American Indigenous Games, visit cbc.ca/NAIG.