"Illuminata" Caerphilly Castle

Illuminata is the story of Caerphilly Castle told in sounds and images.
I really enjoyed working with CADW to create this.
We spent a lovely week wandering around this 13th Century building and learning about its history. I also got to work with Mike Cooper who draws for 2000AD. He created some of the bespoke images which we animated. Paul had a great time in the Pound Shop and we all discovered the real Welsh Rarebit.

More Pittsburgh Pics

Splendors

After creating 'Palimpsest' for the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust last year, they have invited me back this year to create a series of installations. This is 'Splendors' which is based on the artworks that are in the city at the moment which are part of the private collection of the Vatican. These cover the entire range from sculpture to architectural drawings, paintings and mosaics. I dont normally work with anything that approximates a flat screen so this has been an interesting exercise for me as all the walls I am using are basically flat smooth surfaces.

Pittsburgh is a good town to hang out in. Being from Sheffield (which was also a steel town), I feel right at home.

New Zealand Army Haka - Rehearsal

New Zealand Army Haka - Rehearsal, originally uploaded by Ross Ashton.

Its Edinburgh Tattoo time again, and I am back in sunny Edinburgh for the first shows of 2010. Probably my favourite look of this show is this one, the Haka performed by the New Zealand Army Band. I am projecting the black and white image and Gerry Mott lights the castle red to colour it. The combined effect is very pleasing. This is the Diamond Jubilee year for the Tattoo.

Next year they replace the stands with brand new ones with purpose built projection rooms. Excellent!

Lining Up

Lining up at Soccer City

Daktari

On our day off, and the ETC crew and I went on a days safari.

This is really a magnificent country and the people at the

Shepherd's Tree Lodge were great.

Jason our guide was very accommodating but the award for best tracker needs to go to Jack, who is one of our drivers.

He could spot animals that all the rest of us could not even see.

The landscape is very dry at this time of year, so it is completely brown. As I have said before, it is -2 to -5 at night and yet reaches 20 during the days. There is no rain and the combination of factors has a devastating effect on plant life.

Installation at Soccer City

I arrived a couple of days ago in South Africa for the get in of the World Cup closing ceremony which will be held at Soccer City. As you have seen from my previous post andf from the photo above, they have managed to brand most things with a football theme.

Its absolutely freezing here getting down to -5 C at night, and like most hot countries cold weather is never taken into account as it is so rare. Consequently my hotel room has been freezing for two nights with no heating, until the management took pity on me and got the aircon to pump hot air.

The system is in and up and the ETC guys have been working hard and we are very much ahead of the game (touch wood). Gearhouse are great and things are going swimmingly! Long may it continue. We flew out the projector platforms today and can start lineup after the next match on Wednesday.