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Recreating Medieval Paintings with Light at St Albans Cathedral

66 points by prismatic 4y ago

jagged-chisel 4y ago
“Projecting recreations onto the original paintings” sounds a lot less lofty, I suppose.
- nulbyte 4y ago
  I am impressed with the 18 months' work to produce a means to see medieval works of art that were intentionally defaced without further disturbing the original pieces. It does seem a lofty endeavor, and I think it was well executed.
  - musicale 4y ago
    > defaced quite literally
irrational 4y ago
This is pretty cool. I wonder what other things we could apply a similar technique to? Leave the original untouched while helping people to visualize what it once looked like.
- kelseyfrog 4y ago
  I wish I could find this again, but I recently saw a photo depicting a cool visualization setup. It situated a wire sculpture between the observer and a set of old ruins. The wire sculpture was positioned in such a way that it appeared to delimit the bounds of the ruined structure as it would have been original built when the observer was in the correct position. It was, like this, a non-contact way of enhancing an existing artifact.
  - DoreenMichele 4y ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/architecture/comments/44s9ln/a_clever_way_to_show_how_ancient_ruins_looked/ https://www.reddit.com/r/architecture/comments/44s9ln/a_clev...
    - kelseyfrog 4y ago
      Thank you! Yes, this is the technique I had in mind. Is there a name for this particular way as it applies to visualizing ruins?
      - DoreenMichele 4y ago
        I do not know, but I've gone down the rabbit hole and the best search term I have managed to come up with is overlay architecture visualization ruins.
DoreenMichele 4y ago
St Albans Cathedral, located north of London, is recognized as the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain. It took 18 months to create the light projections This light projection was part of a £7 million project to help restore and transform St Albans Cathedral. This is quite the special project.
- incompatible 4y ago
  They are a little more careful with their restorations these days. The cathedral was also restored by Baron Grimthorpe in the 19th century, who was apparently permitted to do what he liked since he was using his own money. According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Beckett,_1st_Baron_Grimthorpe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Beckett,_1st_Baron_Grim..., "inspiring the creation and temporary popularity of the verb "to grimthorpe", meaning to carry out unsympathetic restorations of ancient buildings".
lubujackson 4y ago
This technique (or something similar) was used to revive a degraded Rothko painting a few years ago: https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/lighting/reviving-mark-rothkos-harvard-murals-using-light_o https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/lighting/revivi...
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

66 points by prismatic 4y ago

jagged-chisel 4y ago

“Projecting recreations onto the original paintings” sounds a lot less lofty, I suppose.

nulbyte 4y ago
I am impressed with the 18 months' work to produce a means to see medieval works of art that were intentionally defaced without further disturbing the original pieces. It does seem a lofty endeavor, and I think it was well executed.
- musicale 4y ago
  > defaced quite literally

irrational 4y ago

This is pretty cool. I wonder what other things we could apply a similar technique to? Leave the original untouched while helping people to visualize what it once looked like.

kelseyfrog 4y ago
I wish I could find this again, but I recently saw a photo depicting a cool visualization setup. It situated a wire sculpture between the observer and a set of old ruins. The wire sculpture was positioned in such a way that it appeared to delimit the bounds of the ruined structure as it would have been original built when the observer was in the correct position. It was, like this, a non-contact way of enhancing an existing artifact.
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  https://www.reddit.com/r/architecture/comments/44s9ln/a_clever_way_to_show_how_ancient_ruins_looked/ https://www.reddit.com/r/architecture/comments/44s9ln/a_clev...
  - kelseyfrog 4y ago
    Thank you! Yes, this is the technique I had in mind. Is there a name for this particular way as it applies to visualizing ruins?
    - DoreenMichele 4y ago
      I do not know, but I've gone down the rabbit hole and the best search term I have managed to come up with is overlay architecture visualization ruins.

DoreenMichele 4y ago

St Albans Cathedral, located north of London, is recognized as the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain. It took 18 months to create the light projections This light projection was part of a £7 million project to help restore and transform St Albans Cathedral. This is quite the special project.

incompatible 4y ago
They are a little more careful with their restorations these days. The cathedral was also restored by Baron Grimthorpe in the 19th century, who was apparently permitted to do what he liked since he was using his own money. According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Beckett,_1st_Baron_Grimthorpe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Beckett,_1st_Baron_Grim..., "inspiring the creation and temporary popularity of the verb "to grimthorpe", meaning to carry out unsympathetic restorations of ancient buildings".

lubujackson 4y ago

This technique (or something similar) was used to revive a degraded Rothko painting a few years ago: https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/lighting/reviving-mark-rothkos-harvard-murals-using-light_o https://www.architectmagazine.com/technology/lighting/revivi...

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]