Atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a red flashing beacon warns passing aircraft that the top of the iconic structure is nigh.
For the next 21 days, six high-powered laser projectors, double the strength of any other laser used in the harbour, will ensure people in Bondi know where the top of the bridge is.
The installation, Bradford's Beacon, is part of a fully interactive display that forms the centrepiece of Skylark, part of this year's Vivid Sydney celebrations. The beams are strong enough that visitors to Vivid will see them rest upon numerous famous buildings around the harbour before they move around the inner harbour and out to the headlands.
Skylark includes six high-powered lasers atop the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Photo: Brook Mitchell
Skylark features 40 pillars of light above the Overseas Passenger Terminal and Bennelong Apartments and, combined with the beacon, will create a two-minute light show every 30 minutes.
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The creative mind behind Skylark, 32 Hundred Lighting's Iain Reed, who created record-breaking installations for Vivid in 2016 and 2017, said it was an enormous but satisfying undertaking.
"It is a very satisfying form of art, lighting and doing visual art projections," he said.
"You do all the hard work and hit the button and there's instant gratification because you can see it and see the reaction of the public straight away."
Reed began thinking about how he would raise the bar from last year's Dress Circle installation as soon as it was in place, and he is thrilled that his vision has become a reality.
"You start thinking 'wouldn't it be great if we did this?' or 'what if we tried that?' and you try to formulate the ideas and put them in some sort of rational order," he said.
"When we were installing it and testing it, we had people in Bondi going 'wow, this is amazing', and that's the real fun part for me: watching people interact with the installation."
The interaction extends beyond people staring in awe as the art is projected onto the buildings around them. A "big green button" in Circular Quay will allow visitors to interact with the installation directly by activating the light show.
"It's like Christmas for me," Reed said.
"It's a real joy watching people hit that big green button."
With the stakes now officially raised for Vivid 2018, Reed's mind has turned to how he will lift the bar again next year. He said he already has some ideas.
Skylark is visible from multiple vantage points around Sydney Harbour from 6pm to 11pm every night during Vivid.
For more information visit vividsydney.com
Nathanael Cooper is Fairfax Media's deputy entertainment editor
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