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Digital Art bringing Medieval Masterpiece to life at York Minster
Published: on 6th January 2007 by Charlotte Hancock in Minster News
York Minster’s extensive restoration of the Great East Window – the world’s largest medieval window - is being brought to life in a ground-breaking digital art installation launched to the public on January 6.
‘Recovered light’, by renowned international artists Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar and Paul Kaiser (known as the OpenEnded Group), will allow people to see the window’s scenes, never before seen by the public, up close for the first time. It will bring to life the current restoration project of the window, designed to improve the clarity and condition of the 15th century work and to save it from collapse.
The artwork, which will be in place until January 28, will be projected onto a massive screen on the gridwork of scaffolding which covers the entire eastern façade of York Minster for the period of the restoration. Recovered Light will act as a kind of virtual x-ray, peering through the scaffold at the Great Window. This digital artwork will use artificial intelligence to carefully reassemble the intricate scenes of each stained glass panel, as if solving a complex jigsaw puzzle and bringing back to light imagery long lost to view.
The Great East Window is the biggest single expanse of medieval stained glass in the world, is roughly the size of a tennis court and has been described as ‘the Sistine chapel of the stained glass world’. It is the earliest piece of English art by a known artist, completed between 1405 and 1408 by John Thornton.
Scaffolding now obscures the Great East Window from view and it is unlikely that visitors to the city will be able to view the window for another ten years.
Recovered Light will work in real-time using a sophisticated artificial-intelligence program. This allows it to interact with the movements of the viewers outside, as well as to continually vary the moving images.
Paul Kaiser, of the OpenEnded Group, based in New York, said: “We’re extremely excited about lighting up York Minster as never before. Our artwork will result in a spectacle that never repeats itself during the course of its run and will reward not only visitors to the city encountering it a single time, but also York citizens who will come across it repeatedly in the everyday course of things, catching glimpses of it from afar as well as studying it up close, always finding something new revealed in the ever-shifting artwork.”
Recovered Light has been commissioned by the York Tourism Partnership as part of Illuminating York, a ten year strategy by the city with investment from the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, to encourage greater use of the city in the evenings, increase visitor numbers, and enhance the evening environment and security at night.
Rory McCarthy, Tourism Development Officer for the City of York Council, said: “We wanted to secure an artist of international standing to create a light-based public artwork that will catch the imagination of the nation, inspiring visitors and residents alike. We’re excited to see the final results.”
Gillian Cruddas, Chief Executive of York Tourism Bureau, said: “January is traditionally a quieter month for tourism in York so we’re delighted the city has managed to attract world class artists to put on this major piece of public art. With several fringe events happening next month, as well as a mini arts festival, we’re expecting bookings to York to increase throughout January.”
Visitors can find out more by visiting www.visityork.org. Recovered Light will run from 6 January for three weeks to 27 Jan inclusive.