St Andrews Window - St Andrews Cathedral

St Andrews Window - St Andrews Cathedral, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

The final rehearsals for the St Andrews Festival son et lumieres are taking place tonight. Two of these are being held within the grounds of St Andrew's Cathedral on the headland above the old fishing port. The ambition is to turn this into a regular event that will be bigger each year. The weather has much improved from the install day with its 70 mph gales and driving rain. Now the skys are dry and clear, which means that it is cold but perfect 'son et lumiere' weather. The pieces will run constantly from 5 till 8 pm from the 28th to the 30 November

St Andrews Festival

Chi Rho - St Andrews Cathedral

Chi Rho - St Andrews Cathedral, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Pictish Fish - St Andrews Cathedral

Pictish Fish - St Andrews Cathedral, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Pictish Symbology 2 - St Andrews Cathedral

Pictish Symbology 2 - St Andrews Cathedral, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Base Camp St Andrews

Base Camp St Andrews, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Preparations continue for the son et lumieres in St Andrews. The accommodation leaves something to be desired, however the tea making facilities are excellent.

The three projection pieces go live on Saturday night.

St Andrew's Cathedral - Altar

St Andrew's Cathedral - Altar, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

At the end of November I have been given the opportunity to carry out three Son et Lumiere simultaneously in the town of St Andrews, Scotland.
One will be a repeat of the 'Origins' piece I created last year which will be held at St Mary's Quad. The other two are brand new and will be held at St Andrew's Cathedral, the ruins of which stand above the sea on a headland. This is a magnificent site.

The two son et lumieres are companion pieces and are called "Via Maris" and "Via Caeli". ("By Way of the Sea" and "By Way of Heaven". I hope that people will be moved by the site and its history and its place in the lives of the people that live in this magnificent part of the world.

Link to St Andrews Festival Website

St Andrew's Cathedral - Cloister

St Andrew's Cathedral - Cloister, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - Red Gold Texture

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - Red Gold Texture, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

On the final night of the Lumiere Festival the estimate for the number of visitors over the four days is 75,000. This far outstripped the estimated numbers of visitors. Bravo Durham for putting on such a brave and innovative event.

You can see press reviews by following these links:

The BBC

The Guardian

The Scotsman

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - Cuthbert's Cross

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - Cuthbert's Cross, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - Luke's Gospel 1

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - Luke's Gospel 1, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - Starburst

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - Starburst, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - John's Gospel

Crown of Light - Durham Cathedral - John's Gospel, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

The "Crown of Light" at Durham Cathedral is now live and attracting big crowds. Even the torrential rain has not put the public off. We are having ten thousand visitors a night.

This image shows the Gospel of St John from the Lindisfarne Gospels, which are one of the treasures intimately entwined with the history of Durham and its Cathedral.

This piece was created for the Lumiere festival which has filled the centre of Durham with artworks, mostly based around light. Lumiere is organised by Artichoke.

"Crown of Light" Preparation at Durham Cathedral

"Crown of Light" Preparation at Durham Cathedral, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

These are the lineup slides being projected onto the architecture at Durham Cathedral as we prepare for the first night on Thursday. I wanted to achieve a 'magic' installation that has no shadows from the many trees in the image area. This poses a problem as to create this I needed six separate projection positions using four different lenses. However, I think that the results justify the effort required. This is part of the Lumiere Festival in Durham from the 12th to the 15th of November 2009. The soundtrack was created by Musical Director Robert Ziegler and Sound Designer John Del'Nero. Crown of light runs every half hour from 1830 to 2200 each night and is free to the public.