Projection Studio Lights Up Colchester Castle

Projection artist and digital art specialist Ross Ashton of London-based The Projection Studio has created three new 'son et lumière' shows for Colchester Castle in the UK. The work comprises projecting onto one of the Castle's internal wall, accompanied by dynamic soundtracks created by sound artist Karen Monid.

Mr Ashton was approached to produce the show following his work at Caerphilly and Norwich Castles. "We were really thrilled to be asked to work on the project," he says. "The challenge was picking a selection of historical moments that would best translate to large format projection and also encapsulate the scope and breadth of the Castle's story in a short timeframe."
The three AV segments are each three minutes long. The first explores the early origins of the building and its life as the Temple of Roman Emperor Claudius and its destruction during the Revolt of Boudicca; the second details the site being re-developed as a Norman fortress; and the third is an overview of the Castle's activities and uses from the medieval era to the present day.
Content was produced by The Projection Studio, with many of the original materials sourced from the Castle Museum's own archive. The 3D animations were created by Sang Gun Kim and the 2D work was completed by Thierry Noyer under Ashton's art direction.
As well as storyboarding, scripting and producing the three stories, Ashton designed the projection system, which has a Panasonic PT-DW17K at the centre, fitted with a .6 short throw lens. The projector is attached to the celling via a bracket and projects an image 15 metres wide by 10 metres tall. The physical installation was completed by Sysco AV.
Karen Monid created a bespoke sound piece to accompany each different story, working closely with Ashton's team and the Castle staff, matching many effects and sound elements to the visuals happening onscreen.
For the first story, Monid included a recording of a Latin prayer from the period being recited by a scholar in ancient languages, adding musical enhancements of her own and the sounds of Roman Colchester.
The second Norman story features a soundscape of medieval construction, accompanying the images of the frenetic castle building period, including a scene where the actual wall utilised for the projection is erected brick by brick. Much of the sound detail for this piece was inspired by the pictorial action being created.
The third show journeys through high energy stylistic soundscapes to take the Castle from medieval to modern periods via a series of key episodes – including its years as a prison. The audio adds atmosphere – with battles, incarcerations, etc., and uses spoken text, some of which is derived from local archive documents. All of it is underscored with modern rhythms as a thread of continuity joining the whole piece together.
The son et lumières opened last week after the Castle had been closed for 15 months to allow a £4.2m transformation to take place, funded by various organisations.

www.theprojectionstudio.com

(IT/JP)