Since times immemorial, people have given natural phenomena they do not understand supernatural origins. While the explanations for wind, rain and thunder can be found around the world, the Aurora Borealis are limited to the polar regions, and as both phenomena, and lore of origin are fairly unknown to most of the world. The newest development at the Saariselkä resort is called the Aurora Experience, and designed by the WhiteNight Lighting, it brings forward both the age-old supernatural view of the world, as well as the unique experience of the Aurora Borealis in the middle of the polar night.

According to the art plan of the ski resort area, the goal of the project was that along with new type of light art experience, the light art should guide tobogganers safely through the route and lit atmospherically otherwise dark hill. The art plan encourages to utilise beautiful nature of Finnish

Lapland and centuries old myths and mythologies as an inspiration for art projects of the area. The chosen Aurora Borealis inspired theme fits pleasantly to arctic milieu and unique nature of Finnish Lapland. Finnish folklore of “Tulikettu”, a mythical ember-tailed fox, fit perfectly to be the story behind the Aurora Experience.

The Aurora Experience consist of a toboggan run that lets the participants live both the thrill of following the Tulikettu and being inside an Aurora Borealis as well as to connect with the the age-old legends of the polar night. The course starts next to the sky itself, above the treeline at the top of the Kaunispää fell. From this barren landscape, the participants speed their way down an illuminated track through the arctic scenery littered with projected imagery of the Finnish lores and tales.

Halfway of the fell, they arrive to the plaza where “Pohjannaula”, the proverbial centerpin of the known world around, stands. After this pivotal point, the tone of the course changes, and natural beauty illuminated evergreens lines the rest of the way down to the valley at a leisurely pace, with the projections and lighting mimicking the dance of the Aurora Borealis.

Lighting of the route was executed by street light luminaires customized for this project by equipping those with RGBB-leds. This solution provided good optical qualities still maintaining powerful color effects. Light projections were mainly done by metal halide GOBO-projectors. Based on the experience it was known that there might be problems with led projectors. During the artificial snowing of the slopes there is snow whirling around high in the air and since LED projectors doesn’t produce heat on the front glass, there could have been problems keeping the front glasses clean from the snow. The RGBB-luminaires are DMX-controlled and hardware for lighting control is placed inside a switchboard next to the square at halfway of the route. The switchboard is equipped with a remote connection device with integrated modem, offering firewall protected VPN-connection. It is possible for the designer to edit programs from own office.

Client: Saariselkä Ski & Sport Resort Oy
Project: Aurora Experience
Location: Saariselkä, Finland
Lighting Design: WhiteNight Lighting, Finland
Electrical contractor: Saariselkä Ski & Sport Resort Oy and Ellappi Oy
Lighting Suppliers: Lumous Lighting, Meyer Lighting, Martin by Harman, Studiotec, Poles by Tehomet, Osram, Tosibox
Photo credit: WhiteNight Lighting Oy and Jaakko Posti