Transforms historic Descanso Gardens into a breathtaking spectacle of color and imagination.
Leading visual design group, Lightswitch, has overseen lighting design and creative direction for “Enchanted Forest of Light” at Descanso Gardens in Southern California since 2016. This year, the popular one-mile nighttime walk through colorful and dazzling lighting displays shined brighter than ever with an expanded IP-rated lighting package from Elation that included the company’s new Proteus Hybrid MAX.
“Enchanted” is an immersive visual experience tailor-made to highlight the historic botanical garden’s unique beauty and flora. Each year, Lightswitch reimagines portions of the experience, enhancing areas and repositioning luminaires. This season’s show ran from November 19 through January 7 and included a new area as a result of refurbishment elsewhere in the gardens.
Lightswitch creates and produces the entire “Enchanted Forest of Light” experience, designing lighting, media, and interactives, as well as overseeing music selection, sound design, and technical and logistical production. Under the leadership of Lightswitch Principal Chris Medvitz, the visual design of "Enchanted Forest of Light" has consistently relied on Elation lighting for the past seven years. This year, Elation IP65 lighting was expanded to all areas of the display, further enhancing the enchanting atmosphere.
Illuminating art
Collaboration with outside artists is an integral part of the “Enchanted” experience. On the main lawn, a series of magical stained-glass–inspired houses by sculptor Tom Fruin are internally lit with SixBar 1000 IP LED battens while in the rose garden geometric sculptures by artists HYBYCOZO glow from within using Proteus Lucius LED profile moving heads as a stream of moving effects emanate through the pieces.
A special HYBYCOZO art piece that features in the installation is a large, rotating mirrored star previously lit using Proteus Hybrid but now illuminated using Proteus Hybrid MAX. “Choosing Proteus Hybrid MAX made a lot of sense here because it is a smaller fixture, lightweight and includes technical updates that make it a more refined fixture,” Medvitz stated. “We needed a tight, collimated beam to minimize the overspill which the fixture’s narrow beam allows us to do.”
"Spectral Sanctuary"
The Proteus Hybrid MAX, the IP66-rated upgrade of Elation’s pioneering Proteus Hybrid with all-new technology, provides versatility in areas like the newly created "Spectral Sanctuary," where environmental impact is an issue. Concerned about disruption to the property’s lilac garden ecosystem, Lightswitch was asked to create an installation that minimized the amount of equipment incorporated around the plants. Medvitz explains, “We moved the existing installation to an area of the garden that was less impactful on the specimens and created a new installation called Spectral Sanctuary. Here we placed Proteus Hybrid MAX on towers along the edge of the garden to create a stunning light show through the lilacs rather than lighting effects amongst the plants. We kept a safe distance and allowed them to have an impact without running a lot of cable and other equipment through the middle of the garden itself. It’s a different look than we have in the rest of the show but worked out really great.”
Elation across all areas
In past years, “Enchanted” leaned heavily on Elation’s Proteus Hybrid arc-source moving head, but over the last few years many of those fixtures were replaced by LED-based Proteus Maximus and Proteus Lucius luminaires, and now the Proteus Hybrid MAX. Other IP-rated lights from Elation are used across multiple areas of the experience as workhorse luminaires such as the SEVEN PAR 19IP/7IP so that Elation lighting now graces all twelve of “Enchanted’s” environments. Creative Technology served as production partner for this year’s project, which included supply of the Elation lighting.
In “Fantasy Forest,” a large, dense area of trees and foliage where layers of lighting synchronize with an ambient soundtrack, Proteus Maximus deployed around the perimeter add a special layer of effect. Additionally, five to ten feet off the ground and hidden amongst camellia bushes are SixBar 1000 IP color-changing battens used as direct view eye-candy. RGB Pars lighting trees and plants provide a third layer of light.
Perhaps the most magical area of “Enchanted: Forest of Light” is the “Ancient Forest,” featuring ancient Redwoods and other species of plants that existed millions of years ago. Dramatically lit with accompanying soundtrack and fog atmosphere, “Ancient Forest” crafts an ambiance that is truly otherworldly. Here, Proteus Maximus lined the back of the location and projected gobo patterns and moving beams.
“Carved”
Prior to “Enchanted” opening in November, many of the show areas served as the backdrop to a separately branded event that is growing in popularity. “Carved” is a family-friendly Halloween experience with luminous jack-o’-lanterns, elaborately carved pumpkins and oversized sculptures. Much of the lighting and infrastructure used in that area is shared with “Enchanted,” about 2/3 according to Medvitz, but with different theming. For guests, Enchanted and Carved are two different experiences, but from Lightswitch’s perspective, as well as a logistical viewpoint, they are one big project that runs from mid-September until mid-January, which means the lighting is outside and exposed for all that time.
“Enchanted Forest of Light” and “Carved” are not only unique sensory experiences that transport guests to a magical realm, they have become year-end traditions in Southern California, consistently drawing large crowds, increasing membership, and generating revenue for this beautiful non-profit botanical garden.
Photos 1-9: Kathryn Rapier
Photos 10-12: Chris Medvitz
