Amazing Light Show At Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Few things are breathtaking. Your first flight, a baby’s birth, witnessing Teebow pull out major fourth quarter comebacks despite having no throwing ability. The illumination of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque is, simply put, breathtaking. To celebrate UAE National Day this year, the mosque was lit with 44 projectors surrounding the building’s perimeter, adding up to a combined brightness of 840,000 lumens. That’s a lot of lumens.

Obscura Digital was contracted for the projection and design of such an intricate display, and it was no easy task. Covering a surface 600 ft wide and 351 ft high with domes and spires is a difficult feat by any measure, but they pulled it off beautifully. The mosque looked like an animated screensaver, but a sophisticated one. How did they make such an intricate composition with just light? How did 3D objects emerge from one-dimensional waves of color? How did they create such harmonious, balanced images? How much did this whole gig cost? For a spectacle so spectacular, not many people seemed impressed. It was as if they’d seen the whole smoke and mirrors illusionistic exhibition before, and it was getting old.

Doesn’t matter. True art gets its recognition some day, and personally I wish we celebrated our country’s independence day like this. As opposed to the firing of overpriced underpowered fireworks and deadly bullets into the sky (passive aggressive attempt at getting people to stop this stupid tradition on the upcoming New Years).