This event will foreground the overlooked relationship between lights, signs and wayfinding in public and private urban settings. Social, cultural, and technical considerations will be explored through the interdisciplinary lens of planning and urban design, taking into account the recent impact of digital technology on cities and their vital environmental information systems.

Who Should Attend:

The city at night is experienced differently to the city by day and differently by varied groups of people. Understanding, planning, and delivering these experiences and associated impacts calls upon the work of many groups and this event is design to be of relevance to as many of them as possible.

Hence, the event will appeal to the following groups.

Policy makers and influencers: Planners, Councillors and portfolio holders, economic development officers, heritage officers, dark skies proponents, City centre managers, those with responsibility for social inclusion and community engagement .

Researchers, students, and academics: Anyone and everyone with an interest in the interaction of people and place and the impact of light covering subjects as broad as architecture, graphic communication, sociology, urban design, social geography, lighting, ecology and doubtless more.

Practitioners and those responsible for service delivery: Lighting design consultants, urban designers, lighting engineers, architects, planning officers, energy managers, landscape architects.

This is the start of a conversation and collaboration building on Leicester’s famous light culture and heritage. All welcome.

Provisional timetable:

5.30pm Doors open

6.00 Introduction – Robert Harland, Leicester Urban Observatory and Loughborough University

6.05 Grant Butterworth. Head of Planning, Leicester City Council

6.25 Interactive digital art: from practice to theory – Dr Sean Clark, Artist & Director, Interact Digital Arts

6.45 Responsible lighting: the impact of a city lighting masterplan / night time economy / Responsible Outdoor Lighting at Night / avoiding horrendous glary billboards – Rebecca Hatchand Graham Festenstein, Institution of Lighting Professionals

7.30 – Discussion/Q&A

8.00pm Close

All welcome. Due to space limitations we request no more than two people per commercial organisation please.

About the venue:

LCB Depot is Leicester’s hub for creative people and businesses, in Leicester’s Cultural Quarter. Learn more about their events, work, and support, at www.lcbdepot.co.uk