YORK, U.K. —E/T/C London lit the Yorkshire Museum and ruins of the 10th century Benedectine Abbey of St. Mary’s with video, film and still images for the fourth-annual “Illuminating York” event. The 10-day sound and light show, called Accendo, celebrated the illumination achieved by both religion and science.
Visit York commissioned the work, and E/T/C projection artist Ross Ashton specified three PIGI 6kW projectors to cover the 75-meter span of the Abbey’s arches and towers, each fitted with double rotating scrollers containing approximately 10 meters of film and 50 images. The PIGI projectors were programmed and run via an E/T/C OnlyCue system.
Ashton decided on video for the museum. Two Barco R18 projectors lit its 35-meter wide pale stone fascia. The imagery, culled by Ashton over four weeks from the museum, city archives and the British Library, was stored, programmed and played back via E/T/C’s OnlyView multimedia control platform, programmed by Richard Porter and Karen Monid, who served as sound designer.
“My goal was to create a large piece of interactive live art that told a story relevant to the historical scientific and religious roots of the buildings, which engaged the public and could be enjoyed by people of all ages and interests,” Ashton said. “I wanted to represent these ancient areas of study in a modern and contemporary way.”
E/T/C London’s technician Michael Barry worked closely with the event’s production manager, Ben Pugh, to rig the projectors on custom weatherized platforms. Both the ruins and the Museum, opened in 1830, are located in York’s Museum Gardens, near the city’s center. The show ran from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. each night.
“We’re delighted with E/T/C’s and Ross’s work and the results and have received an impressive amount of positive feedback from the public,” said Ian Tempest of Visit York. “It’s also a real credit to the City of York, reflecting the quality of the town’s historic buildings and their surroundings.”
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