The honest position. We need startup funding. We are pre-trading, with a plan that leads to delivery — and a funder backing us at this stage is funding the stages that get us there, not a finished show. We understand those stages, we have laid them out, and we would rather list them than blur them. Most of this work is invisible from the outside; that is exactly why we name it.
The stages
1. Research and design — underway now; concentrated push through summer 2026 (~3 months of dedicated time). Consolidating a body of research years in the making into buildable module specifications: which modules the pilot needs, the harmonic framework that unites them, the sensory-safety principles built into each design, and the site-responsive design for the host landscape — non-invasive, fully removable, the landscape as medium rather than backdrop. This is the largest single block of skilled, invisible work in the whole plan, and it is what early funding chiefly buys: dedicated founder time to do the foundational build properly rather than fit it around other commitments.
2. Build — late summer into autumn 2026 (~2–3 months, overlapping testing). Fabricating the pilot module set from the library designs: open-source controllers, the universal trigger layer linking visitor action to light and sound, dedicated outdoor-rated speakers, battery and mains power per placement, weather-rating throughout. No module’s build is locked until it has passed its own prototype-and-bench-test gate. The library that comes out of this stage is a permanent asset — every future installation runs on infrastructure this stage creates.
3. Test — autumn 2026 (~6–8 weeks, interleaved with the build). Bench testing per module — flicker, audio faults, component failures caught at the bench, not at the event. Integration testing, so independent modules compose into one coherent field. Iteration under real outdoor conditions. A sensory-safety review for everything visitors experience directly. And a trial of the measurement instrumentation itself, so the data gathering is proven before it runs in public.
4. Pre-production — autumn into early winter 2026 (runs in parallel; closes in the weeks before opening). Turning the venue’s agreement in principle into a formal partnership agreement. Safeguarding moved to delivery form: policy adopted, DBS checks and training records in place before any beneficiary-facing work. Public liability insurance, licensing for evening public events, site logistics planned with the venue — discreet power, calibrated sound, full de-rig. A soft opening for venue staff, trustees, and local community ahead of any public launch: a technical rehearsal under real conditions and a first piece of community benefit in its own right.
5. First delivery — December 2026, at the near end of the winter 2026–27 window. The pilot: Arley AfterDark, a single run of a few days in the darkest part of winter. Deliberately small — proof of concept, not a full season. We are keeping the scale small on purpose, because the pilot’s job is to prove the whole system end to end: the modules, the method, the partnership model, and the access provision. Dedicated quieter sessions for the communities we serve run alongside the public opening, with consent-based engagement and wellbeing data gathered from the start. Everything we plan for 2027 launches from this tested foundation.
The timeline, honestly stated
The full path above is six to seven months of staged work — but the stages overlap, and the first is not waiting for funding: research and design is underway now, and from July 2026 has our founder full-time. What funding gates is everything from the build onward, and because build, test, and pre-production run in parallel, that remainder is roughly three to four months elapsed from a funded go to an opening night. We are aiming for a December 2026 opening — this year, the near end of the winter 2026–27 window. That is tight, and it is doable, because the pilot is deliberately small. Support landing by early autumn 2026 holds that aim; support landing later moves the window, not the sequence — the sequence is the commitment. We would rather state that dependency plainly than promise a date the funding does not yet underwrite. The fuller trajectory this feeds is the Roadmap; what we plan for 2027 launches from the foundation this pilot tests.
What would close it. Startup funding secured and the stages walked. This question closes at first delivery — when the run is recorded in the public record, expectation against outcome, and our first case study is published openly.
Status: open.