(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)
Abstract
Ruins are innately affective (Edensor, 2001, 2011) and this article explores how meaning is projected onto ruins through light. The paper interrogates intangible cultural heritage through notions of entropy, the process of disintegration and geographies of atmospherics and absence. We used projection mapping to shine disembodied text reflections about authenticity and heritage onto the material surface of St Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury, once a place of significant pilgrimage and learning but is now an architectural ruin, part of a World Heritage Site. Our light installations created a further poetic entanglement in the process of dissolution and ruination by projecting the words used to describe the abbey back onto its surface. Qualitative research was conducted at two light interventions staged at St Augustine’s Abbey. These events continued the process of dissolving the past by accentuating the collapse of the physical structure, replacing it by a fantastical envelope of light. The findings confront the meaning of intangible heritage in the form of text in place and atmospheric transfiguration, mixing affective presence, present and past.
Jane Lovell: My work experience provided me with a background in arts development, at the world-class Royal Opera House and tourism development at Canterbury City Council (balancing the needs of a district which includes a World Heritage Site, a cathedral city, the two very different seaside resorts of Whitstable and Herne Bay and rural areas). My projects at Canterbury included cultural destination management, for example organising the 100-day outdoor Canterbury BLOK urban sculpture show with Englisah Heritage and the University of the Creative Arts and a son et lumiere in partnership with English Heritage at St. Augustine’s Abbey World Heritage Site. I also led the British partnership of an Interreg-funded, £285,000 project working with the cathedrals of Canterbury, Amiens, Rouen and Rochester, culminating in the Cathédrales de Lumière show in 2005.
Howard Griffin: Howard is Director of the MA Architectural Visualisation programme, a course which allows students to focus on the visual communication of architectural form, space and time. This work extends across a number of disciplines, including architecture, film, art, media, urban studies and photography. The course also engages with Digital Heritage, using VR technologies to connect with lost historic buildings and spaces. Howard is currently reading a PhD looking at the perceptual effects that projection mapping can have on the interpretation of architectural and urban space. Much of this research is expressed through live installations, ranging in scale, location and style.
11:15 am - 12:45 pm
Wednesday 15th June, 2022