Every other year, for four nights only, the Lumiere light festival transforms the ancient cathedral city of Durham, UK, into an illuminated garden of the imagination. The 2015 Lumiere marked the fourth such transformation, and this year, for the first time, a science-themed artwork took centre stage. The World Machine – a sound-and-light show projected onto the façade of Durham Cathedral – told the story of how the universe began, and also how, over the nearly 1000 years of the cathedral’s existence, humans have worked to develop theories of cosmology. Meanwhile, below the cathedral, on the banks of the River Wear, another physics-related installation, Rainbow River, celebrated the optics work of Isaac Newton.
In the video, you’ll see The World Machine, Rainbow River and a few of the two dozen other works of art that made up the 2015 Lumiere. You’ll also hear from cosmologist Carlos Frenk, director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University and one of the scientific consultants on The World Machine; and Richard Hornby, physicist and co-creator of Rainbow River.
The artworks in the video (in order of appearance):
Complex Meshes 2015
A “fresco of light” projected onto the arched ceiling of the nave of Durham Cathedral, it responds to the movement of the crowds of people below.
Artist: Miguel Chevalier. Music: Jacopo Baboni-Schilingi. Software: Cyrille Henry and Antoine Villeret.
The World Machine
The story of modern cosmology, projected onto the façade of Durham Cathedral.
Artist: Ross Ashton. Sound: John Del’Nero. Music: Isobel Waller-Bridge. Scientific consultants: Carlos Frenk and Richard Bower.
Garden of Light
A group of illuminated plants made of recycled materials and scattered around the cathedral grounds.
Artist: TILT.
Fogscape #03238
An artificially generated cloud of fog rises from the banks of the River Wear, creating patterns of light and shadow in the woodlands below the west front of the cathedral.
Artists: Fujiko Nakaya and Simon Corder.
Rainbow River
Created to celebrate the UNESCO International Year of Light, this work evokes Isaac Newton’s work on the optics of triangular prisms, with beams of white and coloured light reflecting off the surface of the river.
Artists: Alison Lowery and Richard Hornby.
