A series of dynamic light art installations have begun to take over the largest city in Australia, turning tunnels into painted bouquets and the converting the sails iconic Sydney Opera House sails into a colorful storytelling canvass.

Part of this VividSydney event (running through June 9th), the MLC building begins its animated tale as a small stand of trees that entangle and intertwine to become a single huge trunk.  As the visual story unfolds, “leaves flutter in a virtual breeze. Before your very eyes, a colossal tree seeds, sprouts, and rapidly spreads.”

The process is full of small and sudden surprises as well as slow-building suspense.“Like the dwellers and vehicles that bring energy and movement to a large city, beetles, bugs, centipedes and birds emerge out of the tree, scurry about their business, and then vanish again into the canopy. A symbiotic ecosystem is created [from] previously lifeless concrete and glass.”

Meanwhile, along the waterfront, this year’s ambitious all-new light art production for the opera house will “take the iconic building on a dramatic journey through time – from the birth of architecture and civilization through to the pinnacle of human and technological achievement.”

Other illuminated installations can be found all around the city, lighting up everything from buildings and bridges to ferries and fountains. And light art is only one of its three dimensions. VividSydney “is a unique annual event of light, music and ideas, featuring many of the world’s most important creative industry forums, a mesmerising free public exhibition of outdoor lighting sculptures and installations, a cutting-edge contemporary music program and the spectacular illumination of Sydney’s iconic architecture.”