Ship of Light. 4k UHD film with stereo sound. Duration: 10 minutes. On show at the Spurn Lightship, Hull. Commissioned by Hull City Council
Ship of Light takes an exploratory journey through the Spurn Lightship using animated sequences created from point cloud data captured from 3D laser scans of the vessel undertaken in 2018, before its refurbishment. These are combined with 4k film recorded during the restoration and re-launch of the Spurn Lightship in March 2023.
Ship of Light celebrates the beauty and the idea of the lightship in all its detail. We have used the point cloud data to create a transparency, revealing different aspects of the ship and to evoke both a ghostly and futuristic quality to this vessel of light.
Background to Trove: Ship of Light
In 2019 we were commissioned by Hull City Council to develop new work for Hull Maritime, a £70m heritage-led project funded by Hull City Council and The National Lottery Heritage Fund. This project involved the transformation of six historic sites and the restoration of two iconic ships – the Spurn Lightship and The Arctic Corsair, to create one of the leading maritime experiences outside London.
Working as part of the wider team with lead consultants Purcell Architects, Southern Green Landscape Architects, exhibition designers Haley Sharpe Design and art consultant Hazel Colquhoun, we have been developing a body of work inspired by the maritime collection that gives a voice to the city’s maritime past, present and future.
Part of our process was to work with surveyors to undertake high-resolution scans of some of the artefacts held at the Hull Maritime Museum before they went into long-term storage in 2020. The data from these scans were used to create Trove – a body of work which includes a series of six sculptural stone waymarkers and five interpretation panels for the route adjacent to Queen’s Garden, connecting the Hull Maritime Museum with the North End Shipyard. The data was also used to create three new films (Ship of Light, Beyond Future Water and Ship of Ice) which will be displayed inside the two museum ships and the newly developed Maritime Museum.
