GLOW shines on with support from ASML 

Every year, the GLOW light art festival draws huge crowds to Eindhoven’s city center – but this year, the pandemic forced GLOW to find other ways to shine. As a proud partner and sponsor of GLOW since 2012, ASML stepped up to that challenge by offering a range of educational initiatives and a unique piece of artwork.

Connecting the DOTs

Keeping the theme for this year’s event – ‘You create GLOW’ – in mind, the festival’s organizational team changed tactics when the pandemic’s second wave began. Instead of the massive art installations, they decided to go small by inviting everyone in Eindhoven to make their own DOT light source. This way, everyone could come together to brighten the city during these dark days. ASML organized 63 workshops for all primary schools in the Eindhoven region in collaboration with local organizations CultuurStation and De Ontdekfabriek, ensuring that Eindhoven’s light would shine far and wide.

Over the course of four weeks, more than 12,000 kids created their own GLOW DOTs to display throughout Eindhoven. Of those, about 1,500 did so in a soldering workshop led by 26 experts from ASML. These students also learned how to connect their creations in a second workshop so that the DOTs flashed Morse code.

The power of light

Artist Olha Stanko, who works at ASML as a reliability engineer, was selected to create an art installation for GLOW 2020. The ASML-inspired 'You Gave Me Wings' presents three wooden figures who open themselves up to light passing through their chests, serving as optical lenses that collect and reflect the light – mirroring the use of light in ASML’s chipmaking machines. The artwork represents the power of light and human connections.