ILLUMINATING YORK

24 October 2008, YORK, ENGLAND

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

Company ETC London, specializing in creating a panoramic projection, participated in the 10-day festival of light in York «Illuminating York».

At the invitation of Visit York organization the Director and Designer of the event was named Mr. Ross Ashton. It was the fourth event «Illuminating York» and, perhaps, the most spectacular and memorable in the history of the city.

Mr. Ian Tempest from the Visit York organization commented: "We are pleased with the results of the ETC and Mr. Ross Ashton and the audience very warmly spoke about the event. It helps create a good reputation of the city, accenting the features of York City historical monuments and its neighborhoods."

Show called «Accendo» consisted of two separate but associated video and movie clips projected together on the ruins of the Benedictine abbey of St. Mary of the tenth century and the walls of the Yorkshire Museum.

The latter was opened in 1830 by Yorkshire Philosophical Society — organization dedicated to the study of natural sciences and collections of archeology, geology and natural history. Both sightseeing attractions are located in the Botanical Gardens in downtown.

Mr. Ross Ashton repeatedly acted as a designer and producer of numerous shows in collaboration with sound specialist Mrs. Karen Monid, developed an individual sound track for each event.

Mr. Ashton explained: "My goal was to create a cultural event, telling about the historical, scientific, religious past of these sites so as to attract people of all ages and interests."

6-KILOWATT PROJECTORS

The main theme of his narrative around which the show unfolded, was that both buildings were centers of knowledge. Following the precepts of a monk of the tenth century Alcuin of York that, in order to understand the world, it is necessary to examine it, Mr. Ashton used the topic of astronomy, geometry, mathematics, music, and based on these 13-minute projection show.

"I wanted to build a script so that these ancient sciences looked at in new ways, in a modern way", — says Mr. Ashton. Together with Mrs. Karen Monid they gained access to the materials of York museum and city archives, the British Library, where they found the images for "medieval" part of the projection to the abbey. For the selection and arrangement of material for a video projection Mr. Ross Ashton took about four weeks.

The projection on a 75-meter wall of the Abbey with its arches and towers provided by three 6-kilowatt projectors
A double-scroller of each projector was about ten meters of film, with fifty images. It programmed and operated by the ETC ONLYCUE system.

For filling of 35-meter facade of the museum Mr. Ashton used 2 projectors BARCO R18. All material was stored, programmed and transmitted to the projector with ETC ONLYVIEW management platform.

Mr. Richard Porter and Mrs. Karen Monid programmed the show.

Both shows were planned as separate events, yet each of them had similar or overlapping images. Pictures and music have been carefully arranged in such a way that viewers could move from one "screen" to another without losing the narrative thread.

THE INSTALLATION OF PROJECTORS ON SPECIAL WEATHERPROOF PLATFORMS IN THE BOTANICAL GARDEN WORKED MR. MICHAEL BARRY, ETC LONDON TECHNICIAN, AND MR. BEN PUGH FROM THE TRIBECA PROJECT.

The show took place from 5:00 pm till 11:00 pm daily and had incredible success. About 1000 spectators came at the Botanical Garden every hour by hour. All attention of New York’s residents and visitors was focused on the event, and interest steady increased.