Celebrations & Commemorations
Celebrations & Commemorations
A selection of our projects, past & recent
Cambridge 800
Cambridge 800 – Commemoration of the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University in 2009 – 2010 We created projection events for the opening and closing ceremonies of Cambridge 800. The theme was “Transforming Tomorrow”.
‘Nano’ projected onto Kings College Chapel took the art of stained glass as one of the earliest examples of nanotechnology and human manipulation of objects’ molecular structures to produce something new. Projected images were created from photos of stained glass windows from various Cambridge colleges including Kings, and juxtaposed with images of modern nanoscience from the Cambridge Nanoscience centre. The Gibbs building show, “Planets to Proteins”, was devised to illustrate the range and breadth of scientific research taking place at Cambridge, and the similarity in structure between the macroscopic and the microscopic. The stunning images of galaxies and nebulae were taken from a mix of space and ground-based telescopes including the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. The 10-minute looped “Blurring the Boundaries” was shown at Senate House & Old School. The content explored the interactions between academic disciplines and was intense and concentrated. From tracker notions to oscilloscopes, the Centre for Music & Science (CMS) links research in the fields of music with psychology, acoustics, computer science and neuroscience. With concrete syntax trees used in computer science to process programming languages and in linguistics for natural languages, here, the tree’s branches bore the fruit of quotations from famous alumni including Tennyson and Douglas Adams.
Ashton further comments, “Apart from the high-profile buzz of the event, it was amazing to produce shows incorporating these beautiful iconic buildings and landscapes – normally not accessible to the public – into a story that looks forward to the future potential and creative energies of Cambridge’s vast research resources – science-into-art, art-into-science”. The projection content was produced from a combination of university supplied material from numerous academic and scientific sources.
Barry Island King's Square
“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 A projection mapped extravaganza which was the prequel to the turning of the town Christmas Lights. Created for The Vale of Glamorgan Council and projected onto Barry Library in Kings Square.
Midwinter Nights
Inspired by the AHRC project, INTO THE FOREST led by Dr. Eleanor Barraclough. Created for Light Up Trails – 2020 Midwinter Nights was commissioned by Light Up Trails for Wiston House.
This experimental artwork was a R&D project for us to use a very unusual projection surface, a stand of trees which were viewable form the main path. The final piece is a ten minute visual poem. The piece depicts animals on a winter evening and juxtaposes predators and prey. The music composed by Karen Monid is meditative and is combined with animal noises to add atmosphere.
The projection was re-worked to be shown again at Anglesey Abbey for the National Trust and at Sir Harold Hillier Gardens, again for Light Up Trails.
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.
