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Electric Bloom is set to dazzle residents with an evening of visual and audio exhibitions celebrating Hackney’s rich fashion and horticultural past.

Supported by Hackney Council and led by creative studio, SDNA, Electric Bloom has brought together residents and artists over six months to explore the borough’s hidden history in botanics and textiles using workshops to create a range of works, many now exhibited in Sutton House, using art, film, animation, music and spoken word, textiles and garden design.

Electric Bloom will take place on 12 September, from 5:30pm, with a unique event in Hackney Central filled with creative works, permanent and temporary light installations, an immersive app-led trail and the premiere of an original Electric Bloom music score performed by emerging local musicians.

Free to attend, the Electric Bloom trail will take place at night using a downloadable app, available from 10 September, which will take attendees on a voyage of discovery through installed artworks dotted around historic landmarks, such as St Johns and St Augustine’s Tower. This will be accompanied by audio stories told by local residents that reflect Hackney’s past with memories of the locations amongst present thoughts on the borough.

Artists from SDNA have also designed a series of temporary lighting installations that will illuminate Hackney Central as part of the trail, while two permanent lighting displays– funded by the Mayor’s Regeneration Funding from the GLA - will feature tropical plants and an animation which will be projected on Churchwell Path and Morning Lane.Immersing attendees in a visual and audio spectacle, the Electric Bloom trail will be accompanied by a soundscape created by Peter Adjaye with Hackney Voices Choir and the Bell Ringers of St John’s at Hackney Church.

The Electric Bloom project reflects Hackney past position at the centre of horticulture and textiles in the capital, with the Loddiges family in the 18th century building the largest hothouse in the world responsible for introducing exotic species to the UK for the first time including orchids, rhubarb and hummingbirds. The borough’s textile roots were also sewn some 200 years ago and by 1900, Hackney was home to hundreds of factories and workshops, employing over 15,000 people.