Illuminata Fireworks (lo res)

Illuminata Fireworks (lo res), originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Firework Finale.  Great crowds last night.  Also had a very large Medieval Banquet after the last show.
Looking forward to great crowds tonight as Caerphilly is hosting a street fayre for Christmas.

Details of the weekend are here.

Illuminata 2011 - rehearsal shot.

Illuminata 2011 - rehearsal, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

For the next three days we will be showing "Illuminata", the history of Caerphilly Castle. This is a free show that will run at 17:30 and 18:30 Friday to Sunday, 9th to the 11th December. Caerphilly also has a medieval fayre on over the weekend, so I think we may be busy.

The show is free so come along! Visit the castle at night and see it in a new way. All the details are here.


The guys have worked really hard, especially today with gale force winds and freezing monsoon rain.
Tomorrow will be dry but cold, so don't forget to wrap up warm.

Crown of Light - Stained Glass

Crown of Light - Stained Glass, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.


Great first night crowds last night.  They really seemed to enjoy themselves.  I do get a buzz from the audience reaction.
The weather is great and I really hope it holds up for the rest of the week.  Its cold but very dry.  The high cloud cover means we are getting minimal bounce from the orange sodium lights in the town, which means the colours look richer and brighter, as the blacks are not tinted orange.
Michael and Cy have got the PIGI's tuned to a T.  Karen has spent the time to get the programming re-tweeked and it is really looking good.  Its rare for me to repeat a piece.  Clients always want to commission new stuff.  However, something on this scale can be repeated I think to great effect, and of course it doesn't cost as much the second time around as it already exists.  Two years on, even those that have seen it before can enjoy it again.
If you are in Durham, come and say hello.


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Crown of Light - Durham 2011

Crown of Light - Durham Lumiere

As part of Durham's Lumiere Festival I will be repeating the large scale installation, "Crown of Light".


The piece celebrates Durham Cathedral and its close relationship with the Lindisfarne Gospels.
The piece was created with Robert Ziegler and John DelNero.  Last time, 70,000 patient people waited in the rain over 4 nights to watch.  I hope that we will get as many visitors this time.


According to Artichoke, the organisers, the piece is back "by popular demand", which is great.


If you around for the festival, do drop into the control cabin and say hello.
The dates are the 17th to the 20th November 2011.

Update!

Its been a busy year up to now and keeping up with the blog slipped far to far down the "To Do" list. However if you have a moment here is a quick update (In No Particular Order!).


The big news is that I have been comisioned to create a projection artwork for the front of Buckingham Palace for "Face Britain". For the full story on "Face Britain" click here.


Last year I created the first outdoor video projection son et lumiere in India called "Ishq-e-Dilli" This was honoured with an award this spring. See the write up here. I'm the guy in the embarrassing trews!


We have opened an office in India to respond to Indian customers who want to use our skils for their events.   This company is called Tricolor India and is based near Delhi.


We are just back from Malta having worked on Rockestra again.  A great time was had by all, although Malta in August is HOT!  No write up yet, I'll publish it when its written up.

August is also the season of the Edinburgh Tattoo, which uses 4 PIGI slide projectors.
This was a landmark year with new stands and a new director.


Later this year I will return to Durham to repeat "Crown of Light" for the Lumiere Festival.  This is projection across the entire facade of Durham Cathedral.


Thats a quick update.  I promise to keep up to date!


Ross

White Light Open Day

Its White Lights 40^th year.

To celebrate this, they are hosting an open afternoon on Thursday 21^st July.

They also promise a BBQ.

The Projection Studio will be there as well as many other manufacturers.

So come along and meet us all.

The invite is HERE

Pavilion of Dreams from Ross Ashton on Vimeo.

This was created for Enchanted Parks in Gateshead. Yet another freezing gig with over a foot of snow! Anyway, the idea was to reinterpret the bowling pavilion at Saltwell Park with a series of themes taken from Fairy Tales. I think it worked well. We had great problems as the layers of snow threw out the mapping. Still, for a small artwork I am quite satisfied with the result. I hope you like it.

16th Arab Media Awards

The reason for being out in Cairo is that the Projection Studio was in invited to produce an opening spectacular for the Arab Media Awards which was broadcast live to 18 countries across the Middle East. The projection was carried out using PIGI and we made the entire show in 14 days. We had some fun and games on the event. The temperature was very low at night with a chill wind, consequently we froze!