Dawn chorus - Light Up Lancaster 2017

The output is a creative project involving a light projection titled “Dawn Chorus” exploring environmental impact and consumerism. The five-minute looped, spectacular narrative and sound track used fantastical found footage to explore human relationships with the natural world using digital film and animation. Research process: Twelve separate films were projected onto the side of twenty screened windows using twelve synchronised projectors to create a single film across a whole building when viewed from the street outside. Intensive experimentation, planning and negotiation was needed not only as the work was within a listed museum, but the commissioned digital projection company, Lumen, had never before attempted such work. Research insights: This opened up new opportunities and ways of thinking about the transformation of urban environments using digital projection. The technique has rarely been attempted before on such a large scale and enabled a re-think around the way one encounters a building. The work proved a means of engaging a family audience in exploring the relationship and contradiction between human and animal life. Dissemination: ‘Dawn Chorus’ was exhibited in The Judges Lodges as part of Light Up Lancaster on 4-5 November 2017. The event attracted national media attention and was visited by over 40,000 people