Brodie Illuminated 2022: Heritage - Year of Stories

Building on the success of a previous event in 2021, this light, sound and projection event took audiences on an elaborate outdoor light trail through the grounds of Brodie Castle. This night time event, run throughout November attracted paying audiences made up of families, couples and individuals. The 2022 event was conceived to explore the 'Heritage' aspect of the National Trust for Scotland's 'Heritage, Nature, Beauty' strap line.

The event also drew inspiration from Scotland's Year of Stories 2022 and wove audio of local myths and legends related to the Brodie estate. At on end of the route, digital projection was used to create a 'talking tree' featuring the animated head of storyteller narrating tree related yarns.

The 1.5km route through the grounds culminated in the large scale projection mapping onto the South, West and North facades of the castle. These projections presented a castle turned inside out, with the family portraits and elements of other important oil paintings from the Castle collection being re-imagined as an immersive animation on the outside of the castle. A very early proprietary AI system was subverted to allow some of the artworks to come alive in the animations. This early use of AI in animation was produced and presented a month before the first preview of ChatGPT was released.