A while ago I saw an amazing video of an incredible light display projected onto a country house. For your enjoyment I have embedded it here. You’ll have to give the video a few minutes to really get going but it is spectacular.
It’s really incredible how the artists use strong contrasts to generate three dimensional effects on a flat building front, and even make it appear like the building itself has disappeared in places. The demolition sequence really got a gasp out of me first time through. Because of this video I was hugely excited to learn of the Durham Lumiere Winter Light Festival in which the cathedral would be illuminated in an animated light show every night. Great! I thought and with memories of that video flashing through my head I turned up, only to be sorely disappointed. The light show consisted entirely of projections of ancient manuscripts onto the cathedral.
The manuscripts did move, I guess. But the effects were barely more impressive than I could have managed by printing a picture onto an overhead transparency then slowly sliding it in front of the projector. One thing at the festival that I did find rather enchanting was this sculpture of a dress, which even from close up appeared to float and shimmer like a ghost. Really, really beautiful.
To finish up this post here is one last video of amazing projection effects on some buildings. I can scarcely believe these are real, I and want to take my hat off to whoever designed them:
Projection on Buildings from NuFormer Digital Media on Vimeo.
