Celebrations & Commemorations
Celebrations & Commemorations
A selection of our projects, past & recent
Cambridge 800
For the commemoration of the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University, we created projection events for the opening and closing ceremonies of the celebrations. The theme was “Transforming Tomorrow” and celebrated the world-changing work of earlier Cambridge alumni, whilst looking forward into the university’s future as a vital centre of world excellence.
Three pieces of work were created for this exciting anniversary.
‘Nano’ was projected onto Kings College Chapel. It took the art of stained glass as one of the earliest examples of nanotechnology and combined the medieval chemistry with images of modern nanoscience from the cutting edge Cambridge Nanoscience centre.
The piece on the GIbbs building, ‘Planets to Proteins’, was devised to illustrate the range and breadth of scientific research taking place at Cambridge. The stunning images of galaxies and nebulae from a mix of space and ground-based telescopes including the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes were remapped onto the building to be seen floating in the darkness.
‘Blurring the Boundaries’ was displayed at Senate House & Old School. This content explored the beneficial interactions between academic disciplines, with a focus on the work of The Centre for Music & Science (CMS). The centre connects music research with psychology, acoustics, computer science and neuroscience.
Geoff Morris, Head of the University’s 800th Anniversary Year, described the light show as a ‘fitting finale’ to the year’s celebrations. “We look forward to welcoming people to this year’s light show and to giving them the chance to witness a display based on work that is underway today and could soon be transforming tomorrow.”
Barry Island King's Square
The Vale of Glamorgan Council approached The Projection Studio to ask for a Christmas lights switch-on like no other, giving a free and open brief.
The resulting projection mapped extravaganza was the exciting and festive prequel to the switch-on of the town’s Christmas Lights.
The enormous projection onto the red and white Barry Library, was fully mapped throughout, highlighting architectural features through an emotional and spirit-lifting piece, that drew on Christmas traditions but with a decidedly modern twist.
“Did Barry just put on Wales’ best Christmas lights switch-on? … this Christmas Barry residents can proudly boast an event that would rival most capital cities.” – Wales Online
“Hearing the audience join in with the animation soundtrack was such a highlight for me. Everywhere you looked people were smiling. It was such a happy and uplifting event.” – Karen Monid
Midwinter Nights
Inspired by the AHRC project, ’Into The Forest’, led by author, historian and BBC presenter Dr. Eleanor Barraclough, this large scale projection and sound installation was specially devised for Light Up Trails Christmas event at Wiston House, Sussex.
The final piece is a ten minute visual poem projected onto the foliage and trees on the landscape. The piece depicts animals on a winter evening and juxtaposes images predators and prey. The music composed by Karen Monid is combined with animal noises in a wide soundscape to add atmosphere.
The piece became an audience favourite. A flexible projection and sound work, it has been re-worked to be shown again at Anglesey Abbey for the National Trust and at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, again for Light Up Trails. It remains a compelling and popular piece for every audience that encounters it.
The Queen's Golden Jubilee
Taking an open brief from event LD Durham Marenghi and show producer Major Sir Michael Parker, The Projection Studio’s Ross Ashton was brought onboard by the event’s main contractor Unusual Services Ltd. He was commissioned to create a storyboard and artwork for a stunning 15-minute projection show – the first time Buckingham Palace has ever been used as a projection surface.
The first site visit established that the Palace wanted the projectors positioned very specifically – to be as concealed as possible. Armed with this info, plus the help of a subsequent visit, a camera obscura test. The 10 PIGI 7K projectors were run as five pairs, located just inside the forecourt, butted up to the railings, lined up with the Palace pillars. The music track was completed just 7 weeks before the show, leaving a very tight deadline to create, source and compile the artwork into scrolls. The scrolling footage encompassed plenty of distinctive images depicting the last 5 decades – from flower power to pink Cadillacs, space scenes, rotating records and children’s faces projecting the future of Britain.
The most memorable image of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations was undoubtedly the amazing projections onto the front of the Palace by large format projection specialists The Projection Studio.
Abbey 1000
Commissioned by St Edmundsbury Cathedral, this was created for the 1000th anniversary of the ancient Abbey of St Edmund in 2020. The work recreated the story of the abbey from its legendary foundation in 1020 until its dissolution in 1539. The event was delayed until 2022 due to COVID.
To create the script we worked with the Cathedral archives and the historian, Dr. Francis Young. The script and images were sourced from contemporary documents. These included The Life and Miracles of St. Edmund from the Morgan Library, chancery rolls from the National Archive, and Chronicle of Jocelyn de Brakelond – a monk at the abbey who gives us a rare and surprising insight into life at a monastery in the middle ages.
The voices heard are academics from the university of Durham and professional voice actors.
Over 10,000 people attended the event.
“It’s amazing, we can’t quite believe it’s come to an end now and it’s ended on such a high with the sound and light show.” – Melanie Lesser, Chair of Bury St Edmunds and Beyond, member of Abbey 1000
“This was the pinnacle of the year’s events and a spellbinding way of conveying the story of Edmund, his martyrdom and the existence of the Abbey. The year has been successful in helping people’s knowledge and understanding of the past and has brought communities together – the challenge now is to build on this success.” – John Saunders, Diocese of East Anglia
A Certain Amount of Courage
A Centenary Cities commission celebrating 100 years of women having the vote in the UK.
Created for Light Night Leeds, Karen Monid was lead artist on this projection and sound piece which explored the suffragette activity of two of Leeds most well known suffragettes, Mary Gawthorpe and Leonora Cohen.
It was scripted and storyboarded using extensive research and contributions from a number of key archives in Leeds, London and New York. The sound piece contained music of the period and local volunteers were recorded and directed to perform the piece. A key part of the design was the supporting soundscape, which was designed to ring out on the streets as if protests were still taking place, as well as creating the audio environments of other key sites, such as the House of Commons.
The projection included specially commissioned portraits of the two suffragettes by award winning Leeds based artist, Suman Kaur.
“They had a huge amount of dedication and passion for the subject matter and worked with a number of sources to create fascinating content for this piece for the Leeds Library on Light Night. We have always been very impressed with the work they have produced and with the positive communication from them. We wouldn’t hesitate to work with them again or to recommend them to others.” – Abbe Robinson, Senior Arts Project Officer / Programmer & Producer, Light Night Leeds