Blink and you miss it (A Swift Story)

‘Blink and You Miss It’ is a soaring, meditative projection piece celebrating the common swift – a bird whose epic annual 14,000 mile pilgrimage crosses the world, before bringing them to a brief summer rest on rooftops all over Europe.

They stay for just a few short weeks to breed and raise their young before vanishing again. They never land except to nest, finding home on our roofs.

Projected onto gauze and flocking around the buildings architectural features, Blink and You Miss It combines stained-glass storytelling, choral music and fast flocks to create an experimence that is joyful, reflective, and perfectly suited to churches and cathedrals.

This piece also has an implied call-to-action. As our buildings change, they are losing places to live. We want to raise awareness of swifts – and the power we all have to make sure our homes can be homes for swifts too, by encouraging people to build swift boxes into their homes.

Info:
– A 6-minute loop.
– A mixture of projection-on-gauze and projection on the church / cathedral itself
– Combining immersion in fast flocks flying with beautiful animated stained glass evoking the story of the swift’s annual migration.
– A gorgeous soundtrack combining choral music with melodies evoking the fast, fleeting nature of swifts – and life itself.

Audience impact:

Emotions: Stillness, beauty, transience, fleeting joy.
Themes: Environment, positive futures, sustainability, wandering, nature in cities.
Additional remarks

This fee is for artist / technical fee, plus the cost of tech hires which will depend on the specific location and size of the venue.