Last night (Wed 31st August) was the press launch for a new collaborative work created
between myself, Ross Ashton of The Projection Studio, and several
other partners. This piece is the result of a unique international
collaboration. The European Space Agency has been an invaluable partner
and has provided constant support throughout the creation of the piece. British
astronaut Tim Peake stars as our ‘narrator’. The music for the
soundtrack is by Vangelis, from his yet-to-be-released album 'Rosetta',
a generous exchange involving amazing support from Universal Music. That
is a real exclusive in support of such a unique art/science project.
Another part of the team is Dr Nick
Lister, astronomer and creator of the Lawrence House Astronomy and Space Science Centre who nurtured a very special aspect of the project with us –
more on that later!
To every single one of our partners above,
we offer our grateful thanks for being part of this adventure.
Here is our taster video of just a hint of what you will see if you come to Blackpool over the next two months.
Here is our taster video of just a hint of what you will see if you come to Blackpool over the next two months.
‘Chasing Stars’ as a son et lumiere piece and a project has several equally important aims.
Our first aim is to combine science and art by
taking the viewer on a journey through space. When we developed this idea, we
knew that real life is as strange as fiction, and believe that art is just
as important as science. Therefore, in this piece, we decided the journey
stages would be formed from real space missions undertaken by the ESA. No fiction is stranger than fact and the truly mind-expanding
concepts and details of current space exploration are comparable to the stuff
of legend.
Ross and myself absorb much of this with a
great deal of wonder and respect for people who commit their lives to this
work, not least those who travel and challenge the frontiers of survival
in space, an environment hostile to humans. Most recently, that has included
British astronaut Tim Peake. This work, right through to the scientific
experiments conducted on the ISS, is undertaken on behalf of all of us.
Our piece then stands in tribute to those
people and attempts to capture, through projection mapping, the sheer scale of
what ESA’s work means.
The International Space Station, 2010
NASA/Crew of STS-132, Wikimedia Commons
The second aim for us was to open up space
exploration to the widest possible audience. All of our collaborators were as
excited about this as we are and it formed a unified intention.
We made this piece intending for it connect
with everybody who sees it using the best of current
3D animation techniques and projection technology. As an historical and cultural
icon, the Blackpool Illuminations form the longest running free public light
show on earth and they have given us the perfect opportunity for this project
to go public.
From "100 Years of Blackpool Entertainment"
by Ross Ashton (The Projection Studio) and Karen Monid
Blackpool Illuminations 2015 and 2016
Our third aim was to open up the creative
process to our future generation of scientists and astronauts. We created an
engagement program, devised and co-run with another of our project partners Dr
Nick Lister.
Nick runs the Lawrence House Astronomy and Space Science Centre in Blackpool, the only facility of its kind in the UK, that
teaches children about astronomy and space science. He does this with a huge
passion for his work and subject, regularly sending teenagers to university
where they study the subject to degree level and beyond. A unique and highly
valuable UK national resource that should be more widely known about and used.
The engagement program we devised involved several schools in Blackpool to generate some of the artwork for the piece and I
undertook audio recordings of the children to discover their views of space and
their possible futures in it. The results, as you will hear and see, were very
human and moving.
Here is the latest in the Press on the piece, with more to come so watch this space! :
From ESA
From Blackpool Council
Here is the latest in the Press on the piece, with more to come so watch this space! :
From ESA
From Blackpool Council
I will write more detail in a post tomorrow
about more specific aspects of the above, particularly the audio side of the
project.
‘Chasing Stars’ forms part of the LightPool
strand of the Blackpool Illuminations for 2016, and goes live on Friday 2nd Sept.
