Illuminating York

Last night we went to the Illuminating York displays; these are light and sound shows dotted around the most historic parts of the city. This has been going for a few years now, and I was priviliged enough to see this (now famous) image of the Minster for real, in November 2005:

This display hasn't been matched in its spectacular-ness since, I don't think, but even so, every year I love to wrap up warm and head out into the chilly city for some exciting light and noise.

Yesterday, there was a display at King's Manor with sound and noise. Huge images of nature and science were projected onto the back facade of the beautiful building, while eerie synthetic sound was played in time to the pulse of the film.


It swept me away a little, whoosing me along with the images, which were really quite beautiful.

It also meant we got to see King's Manor by night. Everything seemed to be extra-illuminated for some reason, maybe because of the colour in the trees and the leaves all over the ground.

It meant I got some exciting pictures of York by night too, playing with night mode and sunset mode on my camera to get some fiery displays and making eerie corners all the more eerie.

Here Kings Manor looks like it's ablaze!



Then we went to a display in Minster Gardens, where an artist was painting onto a screen, which was then projected onto part of the historic walls. It was exciting to see the story unfold onto the old bricks, right out of the artist's head! The images were colourful and surreal; it was odd to see a dog holding a cat in it's oversized hand, while an octopus teased them with its tentacles, all on a piece of Roman history [I think...]!

After all this chilly nighttime wandering, we of course went in search of some warmth, in the shape of a cosy open fire and some drinks.