The Safe Cities Light Pilot: iLumiLanes (01)

Safe Cities Light Pilot: iLumiLanes

Project Background & Artistic Process

The Safe Cities Light Pilot: iLumiLanes is a woman-led, community-driven initiative developed by illuminart in partnership with the Blue Mountains Women’s Health & Resource Centre (BMWHRC). It responds directly to concerns raised in the EViE survey (2024–25), which identified poor lighting, unsafe public spaces, and experiences of harassment as barriers to community safety, particularly for women, youth, and gender-diverse people.

Our vision is to use light and digital art with purpose: to support community wellbeing, strengthen belonging, and make shared spaces feel safer after dark.

Why Light?

Light is both practical and symbolic. It is essential for visibility and safety, but it is also a powerful medium for connection and expression. By transforming public spaces with creative lighting, communities can see tangible changes they have co-designed, reinforcing trust, pride, and ownership of shared places.

Evidence Base

This pilot builds on the EViE survey findings, which provide a clear evidence base for action.
[Optional link: Read the EViE Survey Presentation (BMWHRC)]

Our Approach

The iLumiLanes Safe Cities Light Pilot is guided by a Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) practice, where process is as important as outcomes. The project will embed community voices at every stage, ensuring the artistic direction reflects lived experience and local priorities.

How we work together:

• Partnership with BMWHRC

  BMWHRC bring deep expertise in gender equity, violence prevention and community safety, and will convene trusted networks such as the Coalition Against Violence and Abuse (CAVA) and the Mayoral Reference Group. Their trained counsellors and community workers will help us shape safe processes for participation, ensuring activities are trauma-informed and sensitive to lived experience. This means that when participants share fears, concerns or past experiences, support is available in the moment, and conversations can proceed respectfully and without harm. Their involvement ensures the project is grounded in community needs and guided by interagency leadership.

• Co-design with community

  Through workshops and creative activities, women, young people and gender-diverse participants will shape light-based concepts. These aren’t traditional “town hall” sessions but participatory design processes — mapping activities, visualisations, futuring exercises, games and conversations that allow people to imagine and explore safe futures. We pay special attention to respecting all contributions, including quieter voices and those who raise dissent. In CACD practice, disagreement or discomfort is recognised as valuable insight, helping us design outcomes that are more inclusive and robust. Each activation is then co-designed in response to this feedback, testing to measure their effectiveness to solve issues and reflect real community needs.

• Consultation with interagency networks and local council

  By embedding consultation within existing meetings, interagency networks and community events, the project avoids creating extra burdens for already stretched services while maximising participation and ownership. This approach allows us to “try things” in manageable steps: piloting installations, observing responses, listening to community reflections, and adapting before scaling up. The iterative model means no single activation is fixed; instead, each is a prototype that can be reshaped to meet emerging needs. This strengthens both the artistic outcome and the sense of community ownership.

• Iterative activation model: Instead of a one-off event, the project rolls out a sequence of staged installations. Each activation is prototyped, tested, and refined with community feedback, allowing ideas to evolve responsively.

• Resource fairness: The project values the contributions of community partners by budgeting for their staff time and participant honorariums, recognising that under-resourced services should not be asked to carry unpaid workload.

• Artistic storytelling: Projections and light installations are developed to carry messages of safety, inclusion, and belonging. This is not just decorative lighting, but meaningful expression that reflects community identity.

• Evaluation: Perception surveys, creative feedback tools, and interagency reviews will measure changes in confidence, safety, and community connection, ensuring learning is captured and shared for future initiatives.

Illustrative Co-Design Examples

To demonstrate how the process may unfold in practice, here are three possible scenarios showing how community voices can shape and refine creative lighting concepts: (More info will be provided in https://ilumilanes02.illuminart.com.au showing where we are likely to be placing installations)

• Example 1 – Youth Voice Projection
  In one workshop, young women might co-write messages about respect and safety. These words could be softly projected onto pavement in Beverley Place. Community feedback would then guide whether the tone, language, or placement feels affirming and safe, or whether adjustments are needed before the next iteration.

• Example 2 – Colour & Warmth Mapping
  Community members could experiment with light filters and colour palettes in a safe test setting, choosing hues that feel welcoming or calming (for example, soft ambers instead of harsh whites). These choices would then be trialled in an installation, with surveys and informal conversations capturing whether they increase perceptions of safety after dark.

• Example 3 – Interactive Safe Passage Test
  An installation might trial subtle responsive lighting — a pathway that glows gently when someone approaches. Participants, including those who are usually quieter or hesitant to speak in groups, can share reflections on whether this feels supportive or unsettling. Their feedback determines whether the feature is kept, adapted, or replaced.

 

Support: