Watch 3,000 Cyclists, Runners, and Dancers Become LED Light Paintings

Ghost Peloton Short Film Trailer from NVA on Vimeo.

Picture 3,000 cyclists in LED-laced suits racing through docks in Japan, the industrial heartland of Germany and across the Tour de France route through Yorkshire, leaving behind light trails like synchronized comets. It isn’t a dream; it’s the trailer for NVA’s short film, Ghost Peloton, a work that evolves the public art organization’s Speed of Light collaboration with the Leeds-based Phoenix Dance Theatre, and the national cycling advocacy charity Sustrans. 

Directed by independent filmmaker Mark Huskisson, in Ghost Peloton, riders and dancers wear a special LED suit that can change color, flash-rate and luminosity. Explains NVA Head of Design James Johnson, the biggest challenge to designing the suit involved the creation of a rugged lighting system that could express the rhythm and movement of running, walking, dancing or cycling. It also had to use minimum power while generating maximum impact from a sustainable energy source. After many discarded prototypes, Johnson and team decided that LEDs, arranged in a stick-man pattern, were their best bet.

On November 1st, Ghost Peloton, along with two additional Speed of Light films which document past Speed of Light performances (Speed of Light Yokohama in Japan, and Speed of Light Ruhr in Germany), will premiere at SWG3 in Glasgow. Frame Missing, the electronic artist behind the Ghost Peloton soundtrack, is also scheduled to perform live at the pop-up cinema and live performance event, with visuals by Novak Collective, and a set by DJ James Holroyd.

Tickets for the November 1 event are available now. Below, check out some beautiful light painting images from Speed of Light and Ghost Peloton:

Photo by Alan McAteer

Photo by Alan McAteer

Photo by Alan McAteer

Photo by Christian Neilinger

Speed of Light is currently on tour. Click here for more updates, and stay tuned to The Creators Project for more. 

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