SkyLight (2015)

The GSO’s first production, “SkyLight”, was the first ever opera to be written and performed by a global community.

It was endorsed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as an official project of the International Year of Light 2015. The scientific concept was provided by Dr. Rosa Doran. It was performed during World Space Week 2015 as a collaboration with Lunar Mission One.

During 2015, a network of schools, universities, art institutions and volunteers in 35 countries collaborated to create and perform a science opera inspired by Cosmic Light together, providing a platform for creative science learning as well as cross-border friendship and cooperation.

Award-winning space and nature photographer Babak Tafreshi provided the original artwork for the SkyLight poster.

“SkyLight” has been presented at the European Planetray Science Congress in Cascais, Portugal; the Royal Institution in London, England, during Lunar Mission One’s event; the CREAT-IT Conference; the Greek Physical Society Conference.

The performance of “SkyLight” took place in the 35 involved countries simultaneously in October, 2015, and coincided with the final conference of the CREAT-IT project (www.creatit-project.eu).

“In a time when our world governments seem to be not acting very carefully or rationally, it is so important for projects like Skylight to come to fruition! To me, “SkyLight”, if I might take a verbal liberty here, is a fantastic example of “Crowd-Sourced World Peace and Cooperation.” That is, you have discovered a way of using the Internet for all people on our planet to work together to inspire, educate, and lift us all above our self-imposed limits and oppression by others. Certainly one of the spiritual foundations of Global Hands On Universe and the Galileo Teacher Training Programme is that all Earthlings learn to work together to study the stars.”
– Professor Carl Pennypacker (University of California, Berkeley), Principal Investigator of Global Hands on Universe

SkyLight in pictures

Credits for Skylight GSO 2015

Scientific concept – Rosa Doran (Galileo Teacher Training Programme, Portugal) Hosting of SkyLight premier: Ellinogermaniki Agogi (Greece) Leader, Program for Culture and Creative Pedagogies (K-Ped) – Magne Espeland (HSH, Norway) Narrators – Andrea Volbers and Oded Ben-Horin (HSH, Norway) & Petros Stergiopoulos (EA; Greece) Production Manager (Streaming) – Constantine Mylonas (Greece) Production team – Petros Stergiopoulos (Greece), Science View (Greece), Oded Ben-Horin (HSH, Norway) Pre-production team – Oded Ben-Horin (Norway) and Petros Stergiopoulos (Greece) Staging Support – Pernille Elimar (Opera in the Middle, Denmark) Costume Design for Main Characters – Write a Science Opera (WASO) EEA Grants project, Portugal Rehearsal Managers – Oded Ben-Horin (HSH, Norway) and Petros Stergiopoulos (EA, Greece) Rehearsal Online Conferencing Manager – Petros Stergiopoulos (Greece) SkyLight official Promo-Video created by Constantine Mylonas SkyLight official Promo-Video concept by Constantine Mylonas, Menelaos Sotiriou and Oded Ben-Horin PR support: Svein Ove Eikenes, Vilde Lunde, Andrea Volbers (Norway) Logistics support: Andrea Volbers (Norway) Technology support: Gidi van Liempd (Holland) and Vegard Anuglen, Svein Ove Lysne, Elen Instefjord, Svein Bjarne Brandsgård, Ragnhild Alice Steinsland (Norway) / Project Manager – Oded Ben-Horin (HSH, Norway) Concept – Oded Ben-Horin (HSH, Norway) and Petros Stergiopoulos (Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece)