On February 28, 2025, Chris van Goethem and Bastiaan Schoof presented the Canon II project at the symposium “100 Years of Theatre Collection” at the Allard Pierson museum in Amsterdam.
All speakers discussed the past and present of this collection, while also looking to the future. Chris and Bastiaan talked about how to document the invisible. “You can’t archive light in a box”, Chris told the audience.
We had 10 minutes to explain our approach, which was quite a short time. However, Chris and Bastiaan managed to capture the audience’s interest, and we received many questions after our talk.
Here, we also announced that we had received our funding from the EU. Allard Pierson and Podiumkunst.net offered to assist us, inviting us to their archive for future Canon II meetings in Amsterdam.
In Oktober 2024, iLo (Institute of Lightdesign) invited Chris van Goethem to talk about the Canon II project to the iLo audience. The talks are mostly attended by lightdesigners, light experts, scenographers, students and teachers. This time we specially invited some researchers from Allard Pierson, the Theatre Collection and Podiumkunst.net. So, there was quite a mixed audience from designers, technicians and even a specialist in Vectorworks drawing.
With all these specialists attending, we had a nice and also deeper conversation about archiving, saving designs, what could be saved and what would be the problems with it. The subject was discussed on different sides. The collection specialist who archived Henk van der Geest his archive, also attended. Henk van der Geest is the founder of iLo, he passed away in 2019. After his death 40 meters of Henk his archive was brought to the theatre collection of Allard Pierson.
At that time, we did not know yet if the EU would finance us. Canon II could only be funded if there was budget left. Still, we wanted to focus our attention on the subject to keep it alive and to see what the interest was in the field. Because of that talk, we got an invitation to talk about Canon II at the symposium 100 years theatre collection from the Allard Pierson.
The talk was also published on the website theaterkrant.nl: https://www.theaterkrant.nl/nieuws/bijeenkomst-over-archiveren-voor-lichtontwerpers/
STTF, OISTAT, SLF and Perspectiv organise Conference by Candlelight in Stockholm, from 4 till 6 of June 2026, a conference on historic performance lighting and how this can be achieved in a contemporary context.
An opportunity to consider the qualities, uses and experiences of candlelit performance and its relevance to 21st century theatre. How can we reliably recreate 18th century stage lighting in a time of rapid development of new environmentally friendly and sustainable technology?
More information: STTF or Perspectiv
Svenska Ljussättareföreningen – SLF – is inviting you to Scandlight in Stockholm from 6 to 9 June 2026. Don´t miss this unique opportunity for inspiration and the possibility to meet colleagues and to make new contacts.
The conference is open to different art genres, techniques and forms – theatre, dance, music, circus, television, visual and multimedia art.
The conference is open to Lighting designers, researchers, developers, educators, teachers, students, and arts managers from all over the world interested in the art of light. This meeting is an opportunity to meet potential collaborators from different countries!
The conference working language is English.
More information: www.scandlight.nu
