Graduate engineers from Siemens have developed an innovative, geo-locating lighting system being used as part of an art project tonight.

The Green Space Dark Skies project aims to create artworks in National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty - with the Dorset event happening near Dorchester later today.

The lights, named Geolights, have been designed to allow thousands of people to be part of creating artistic displays in beautiful landscapes, led by Walk the Plank and commissioned as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK.

More than 20,000 volunteers from all walks of life, including many who don’t often experience the beauty of the countryside due to urban, physical or cultural constraints, will create impressive lighting patterns using the Geolights that will be captured on film and broadcast as short films online.

Siemens graduates Annabel Ohene and Nathaniel Fernandes, based in Manchester, worked on the devices, alongside engineering interns Sam Rhodes and Sam Newton, who joined the team during the development phase.

The devices developed include GPS-enabled technology alongside innovations including Internet of Things (IoT), real time location tracking, energy storage and wireless connectivity.

By remotely changing the colour of the lights, each participant, or ‘Lumenator’, will effectively become a pixel within a coordinated image of live artworks within the landscape.

The engineers have worked together with lighting company CORE Lighting, to integrate the Siemens processing technology into CORE’s lights being manufactured in Gloucester, using mainly UK-supplied parts.

Nathaniel Fernandes, graduate engineer at Siemens said: “Working on this project really tested what is possible when it comes to self-locating lighting systems in an outdoor environment. It has been great to work on something that has a fantastic social purpose, but also has potential applications in industries like manufacturing and logistics too where outdoor geolocating can support automation. It is a perfect example of technology that can benefit organisations as well as people.”