Two of the three projections were at the ruined Cathedral of St Andrews. Ashton projected giant moving images onto the altar area and one on the cloister walls.
The third site was in St Mary's Quadrangle, part of St Andrews' university - the third oldest in the English speaking world. These were the only light works in the 2009 Festival.
Ashton had produced a small piece for last year's festival, after which he was asked back by event organiser Rob Murray-Brown to do a piece specifically about St Andrews, to be staged in the city. The sites were chosen by Rob Murray-Brown in consultation with Ross Ashton, The University of St Andrews and Historic Scotland.
Ashton came up with a trio of separate but related storyboards for the three different locations, which were all completely different shapes and sizes.
The Altar is an elegant twin tower with the remains of the stained glass windows above, and the projection was about 13m wide and 30m tall. This was achieved using a PIGI 6K machine with a double rotating scroller. The work was titled Via Caeli (By Way of Heaven).
The Cloister wall projection Via Maris (By Way of the Sea) was 60mlong and 10m high, and composed from three PIGIs with double rotating scrollers.
As with the Altar, some complex masking was required to fit the projections around the arches and the holes that would once have been windows.
The St Mary's Quadrangle piece was called Origin and measured 20m wide by 15mtall, created with one cross-fading pair of PIGIs.
The projectors were all enclosed in weatherised hides supplied by E/T/C London, essential to protect against the inclement weather which included high winds and torrential rain.
Each 15-minute show ran as a loop for three hours each evening of the festival, with all shows programmed by Karen Monid using an OnlyCue PC based system. Monid also created soundscapes for the St Mary's and Cloister projections, adding another experiential dimension for viewers.
(Jim Evans)
