Face Britain makes it into the Guinness Book of Records 2013

Face Britain at Buckingham Palace

Face Britain 1, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.
 
Just a note to say that 'Face Britain', the magnificent work by over 200,000 UK school children and all the great people at The Princes Foundation for Children and The Arts has made it into The Guinness Book of Records for 2013.

Well done to everyone.  
Its on the bottom of Page 8 if you want to see it.

The Princes Foundation for Children and the Arts
www.childrenandarts.org.uk

Artist – Ross Ashton
www.theprojectionstudio.com

Website – Overthrow
www.overthrowdigital.com

Image Handling – Photobox
www.photobox.co.uk

Mosaic Software – Boris Glazer
www.mazaika.com

Equipment & Installation – Creative Technology
www.ctlondon.com

Glass House for Enchanted Parks 2012 at Saltwell Towers

Glass House - Red Angels, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.
Projection Ross Ashton
Sound Karen Monid
Created for Enchanted Parks 2012, 'Glass House' is a celebration of the works of William Wailes. The entire visual element was made by reworking photographs of his original stained glass to fit the architecture.Saltwell Towers, the home of the renowned Victorian stained glass artist William Wailes, began construction in 1854. That same year, the industrial heart of Gateshead was destroyed in the Great Fire. The fire and subsequent devastating explosion, triggered by chemical reaction, opened the way for the rebirth of Gateshead. This rebirth is echoed in the destructive fires of the glass furnace creating the pure colours of stained glass.‘Glass House’ celebrates Wailes’ work, juxtaposing the chemical reactions involved in Victorian stained glass making against the Great Fire of 1854, the rebuilding of the city with the revival of the Gothic style of his work. It utilises images of Wailes’ windows, including his tributes to his own children, with glass sounds and spoken texts taken from diverse sources such as accounts of the 1854 fire and the enthusiastic reception of Wailes’ work at the 1851 Great Exhibition in Crystal Palace.

Thanks to:The original photography of the stained glass was by Shaun Thubron.St. Nicholas' Cathedral, Newcastle and numerous other churches of the North East for granting us access to photograph Wailes' works in situ.The Saltwell Park Volunteers Group for donating their time and vocal talents.The award-winning Enchanted Parks is an innovative after-dark arts experience which transforms Gateshead’s Saltwell Park into a magical night-time winter wonderland. Visitors can explore the park through atmospheric themed installations, light, sound and performance in this event for the whole family.Enchanted Parks is organised by NGI and Magnetic Events.

See Karen Monids blog entry here.
NGI Interview with the artists - Blog entry here

Winter in Venice...And Gateshead!

The Last Supper by William Wailes

I'm working on a couple of projects at the moment.
The first is Glass House for Enchanted Parks which will run from the 5th to the 9th of December 2012.
Glass House celebrates the work of William Wailes.
We have gathered together the works that exist in the churches around Newcastle and Gateshead and all the images that will be projected will be made from these images, reimagined as decoration for the house which he designed and lived in.
The soundtrack will feature the voices of the people of Gateshead and will mix phrases and quotations from numerous texts such as the descriptions of Victorian manufacture & colouring of glass printed for the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, where Wailes exhibited his work through to accounts of the Great Fire of Gateshead.
Karen Monid spent a day in Saltwell Park to especially record the voices of local residents.  These powerful words and phrases will be fused with other sounds to create a sculpture of ‘poetic music’ which will underpin the images that will be projected.
The idea of glass being born from fire and chemical reactions is juxtaposed with the history of Gateshead’s destruction and rebirth.

Then its off to the Venetian Hotel in Vegas to deliver the next installment of The Light of Venice.  Created for their Winter in Venice festival, its a take on Vivaldis 'Four Seasons'  with a soundtrack created by Karen Monid based on this famous work.  More on this later after it installs next week.

Autumn from The Four Seasons

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Winter In Venice 2012

Light of Venice - Canaletto 3, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.
The Projection Studio will be delivering the next instalment of Light of Venice for the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, later this month.
This is designed for their Winter in Venice event and will be a five minute version of The Four Seasons by Vivaldi as reinterpreted by Karen Monid.
Its sounding and looking great at the moment but I will post actual images later in November.

Five Windows - HOP 50th Anniversary - USA

  'Five Windows' - Short Edit from Ross Ashton on Vimeo.
Heres a short taster of the 'Five Windows' show that we created for Dartmouth College Hopkins Centre for the Arts in the US.  I hope you like it.
Theres a nice interview with the college newspaper here

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The Light of Venice at the Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas

Light of Venice - Carnivale 2, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.
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This year we have begun to deliver a series of 3D projection mapped shows to the Ventian Hotel in Las Vegas.  The commissions are to create Son et Lumières for the facade of The Clock Tower of the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, USA.

The Clock Tower is an exact scale model of the famous clock tower in St Marks Square, Venice Italy.

Each story takes a its inspiration from different aspects of the city and its history and recreates fantasies based on these themes.

Three shows have been delivered to date based on Clockwork, Carnivale and Canaletto.

Five Windows - Hopkins Center for Arts 50th Anniversary

Hopkins Center for Arts 50th Anniversary - Main Logo, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.
I'm in Hanover, New Hampshire at the moment creating 'Five Windows', a video projection mapping project to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Hopkins Centre for Arts at Dartmouth College.
This is a massive centre for creativity and includes several theatres and performance spaces, creative spaces and art galleries.
This projection work kicks off the Year of the Arts.

There is a more complete write up of the piece by Graylin Harrison - Here

Face Britain - Night 2 - 1

Face Britain - Night 2 - 1, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Hello, Its been a very busy year to date. I have a lot of projects coming up this year that will keep us hard at it until well into the 4th quarter.  So here is my first blog of the year.  (I know, I know, its April already.)

Anyway,  Its a pretty exciting one for all concerned so I hope it was worth the wait.

I was asked to be the artist to create the collaborative artwork that was the culmination of the Face Britain project.

These projections onto Buckingham Palace were created to break the World Record for the Most Artists Working on the Same Art Installation.

Every child in the UK was invited to upload a self-portrait to be used as part of the installation. In the end over 200,000 responded and there individual portraits were reformed into 32 animated mosaic portraits of Queen Elizabeth II.  This should have smashed the precious record of around 25,000 artists.  When we have confirmation I will let you know.

Provided by my friends at Creative Technology, Scott Burgess supplied 24 high power video projectors.  These were stitched together to create the images, which were across the entire façade of Buckingham Palace.  Scott also took on board the logistics for the towers, power and crew so hats off to him and the guys, especially Dave Boeck.

The Images were gathered together by Photobox and Overthrow and they supplied all the portraits to a fixed size to be made into the mosaics of the Queen.  Boris Glazer from Mazaika created a bespoke version of his software for me to create the "flying" cells which construct each iteration of the portrait. Спасибо Boris.

All in all I feel like the tip of a very large iceberg and I am deeply grateful for the support and professionalism of all these people.

Also I should mention the charity itself, The Princes Foundation for Children and the Arts, who have worked tirelessly to make 200,000 children into World Record Holders and to put them into the  history books.  A fantastic thing to do!

Patzi, Emma, Jeremy, Rebecca and all your colleagues, well done!

Face Britain ran from the 19th to the 21st April 2012 and was part of the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations.

The Princes Foundation for Children and the Arts
www.childrenandarts.org.uk

Artist – Ross Ashton
www.theprojectionstudio.com

Website – Overthrow
www.overthrowdigital.com

Image Handling – Photobox
www.photobox.co.uk

Mosaic Software – Boris A Glazer
www.mazaika.com

Equipment & Installation – Creative Technology
www.ctlondon.com

Face Britain - Night 2 - 5

Face Britain - Night 2 - 5, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Face Britain - Night 2 - 3

Face Britain - Night 2 - 3, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Face Britain 13

Face Britain 13, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Face Britain 9

Face Britain 9, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.