COLLIN VAN UCHELEN - The Art Of Fireworks
“I love the light of fireworks - even though I can no longer see the shapes clearly."
Collin Van Uchelen
“I love the light of fireworks - even though I can no longer see the shapes clearly. This is why I am now exploring multi-sensory approaches to reveal the structure of light of fireworks in ways that even those of us who are blind can perceive. My artwork examines how touch, words, and sound can be combined – translating light across senses in modes that enable access whether sighted or not. At times, this cross-sensory translation can give us tingles along our spines and goosebumps on our skin, especially when witnessing the dazzling beauty of fireworks in the night sky. I call this resonance: It is the feeling I cherish in response to fireworks and it is the experience I now strive to create through my own pyrotechnic art. I am an artist not because I am blind, but because of my appreciation for the artistry of fireworks and my desire to share it…”
 About Collin
Collin van Uchelen, Ph.D., is a conceptual artist, community psychologist, and pyrotechnician based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. His work in the pyrotechnic arts is informed by his abiding appreciation for the art form as well as his own experience of sight-loss due to a progressive blinding eye disease. Although he is now functionally blind, Collin is exploringhow to make the light of pyrotechnic artsmore accessible through tactile representations, audio description, and accessible display design.
Art Installation
Project Fire Flower shows the light of fireworks with touchable shapes
Workshop
Fingerworks For Fireworks teaches techniques for describing fireworks to those who are partially-sighted or blind
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Pyro-Musical
Awaken tells Collin’s own story of sight-loss in a fireworks display he designed without eyesight
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