Blackpool Illuminations Taken to New Heights with "LightPool" Project

London-based creative projection specialist, The Projection Studio, led by Ross Ashton and collaborating with Edinburgh-based War Productions, has won a competitive bid to create a spectacular mapped video projection to be projected onto the facade of Blackpool's famous tower ... as part of the city's 2015 Illuminations.

Projection Studio will be producing all the creative content for the LightPool project, while Alistair Young and War Productions will design the projection system and hardware set up. The two companies have previously worked together on Ross and artist Maria Ruud's AniMotion live painting / projection performances in Scotland.

LightPool will be the first semi-permanent projection mapping project in the UK and also the first time that the large red brick building concealing the base of the 158m tower has been used as a projection surface, the company says.

Projection Studio won the bid -- put out to tender by Blackpool City Council -- against stiff competition.

Ashton and his team were chosen for their artistic credentials and the strength of their creative concepts, the company says, which will see a radical transformation of Blackpool's Illuminations this year.

Ashton says, "I am delighted to win this commission. Blackpool, Illuminations are one of the oldest and most original 'festivals of light,' so being asked able to produce something completely new in a city renowned for pushing the boundaries of light art ... is very exciting".

The work will be created in conjunction with Blackpool Illuminations, the Arts Department of Blackpool Council and arts organization Left Coast who are also delivering a number of other installations around the town for the 2015 Illuminations.

Full details of the project are under wraps until the opening night ... but Ashton says that eight Panasonic 17K projectors will constitute the hardware and that the results will be super bight and highly visible amidst all the other attractions.

The projectors will also be rigged so they can be easily struck during the daylight hours ... and then reinstated for the next evening's show.

Taking the illuminations to new levels of interest and presentation with the two 10 minute Tower base mapped projection shows is all part of the ongoing goal of attracting 2.5 million additional visitors to the city over the Illumination period which is switched on on September 4, the company says.