A Gothic Chapel Is Transformed Into a Spectacular Sky
Staring at the ceiling has never been so inspiring
Miguel CHEVALIER Dear World… Yours, Cambridge from Claude Mossessian on Vimeo.
King’s College Chapel at the University of Cambridge is one of England’s iconic buildings. Started by Henry VI and completed by Henry VIII, it’s known for its Gothic majesty. Now, its visual merits also include an entire universe of stars—thanks to a breathtaking light show by digital projection artist Miguel Chevalier.
Chevalier was invited to the University of Cambridge to create artistic accompaniments for a massive fundraising event that featured speeches by the school’s famous professors and alumni. Using immersive projections, Chevalier helped the audience picture everything from neuroscience to physics, using only the vaulted ceiling of the university’s King’s College Chapel as a canvas.
Chevalier explains how his method works on his website:
For the event, Miguel Chevalier imagines a number of different graphic universes, which are generated in real time and use their own “digital” language to illustrate and interpret a wide variety of subjects...We discover [a] colourful living universe constantly renewed. Everything floats, branches out, appears and disappears, always turning into something else. Colored lines of light sketch out mental landscapes before our very eyes.
As if glowing brains and spinning suns weren’t spectacular enough, physicist Steven Hawking made an unannounced appearance at the end of the evening. As he spoke about black holes, Chevalier turned the entire chapel into a universe of stars. Given that Hawking has recently canceled many appearances for health reasons, the night was that much more special—and the chapel’s swooping, pulsing stars helped illustrate the phycisist's work like never before.
(h/t Bored Panda)