Spectacular show lights up history for visitors

VIP guests and press were given the chance to visit New Lanark World Heritage Site's NEW light installation preview last night ahead of its grand opening today!

Article Source: New Lanark
Last Updated: 11 October 2019 13:04

Image credit: Pearl and Plum Photography

New Lanark and Double Take Projections are delighted to present ‘Shining Lives: Fortunes of Fate’, a spectacular immersive sound and large-scale light installation illumination projecting images onto New Lanark’s impressive building facades.

Shining Lives, an innovative light and sound experience at New Lanark World Heritage Site, is back by popular demand – this time with a brand new story, ‘Fortunes of Fate’. Brought to you by Double Take Projections, you will have the chance to watch 230-year-old buildings being turned into screens for lights, colours, historic images and videos.

Once upon a time, a crew of Highlanders set off on a brave voyage from Skye to North Carolina – and nearly didn’t live to tell the tale...

What happened to them? Find out via this thrilling sound and light show at New Lanark, where their adventure will be projected onto the towering 18th century mill buildings. History is brought to life in this impressive exhibition, and will be accompanied by live actors and an atmospheric soundtrack. Watch the amazing tale of The Fortune Ship Highlanders unfold via larger than life images.

Beginning with their ill-fated voyage from Skye to North Carolina, you will follow the crew all the way to their new life in the famous mill village of New Lanark. With new films, archive imagery and colourful lights projected onto towering buildings, this family-friendly show is New Lanark as you have never seen it before.

It starts in 1791, with a ship called The Fortune, which sailed from the Isle of Skye to America. On board the ship were Highlanders who were planning to emigrate to America. It was driven back to Greenock by a terrible storm, which damaged the mast, and the passengers were put back ashore. Many of these people came to New Lanark. It was difficult to find workers for the mill when it first opened, because it was in the countryside and mill working didn't appeal to many people who had worked on the land.

Soon after, David Dale advertised for more workers from the Highlands and Islands. He wanted to let people know that they had no need to emigrate, because families could get jobs and homes in New Lanark. He promised to build more houses and these were finished in 1793. As a result, many Highlanders came to live in New Lanark. It is thought that Caithness Row, one of the first housing blocks in the village, was named after the first Highland residents who settled in the village.

The artwork will depict a number of characters retelling this story, reflecting how they lived and worked at New Lanark over its existence as working cotton mill. The exhibition will exhibit the development of the regions industries, music and other social activities engaged in and how all of this impacted upon lives of these people.

The Shining Lives exhibition incidentally coincides with New Lanark’s new Autumn exhibition, “Snapshots of a Lost World: the Decline of Scottish Industry” which takes place until the 27th October 2019. The exhibition displays a Historic Environment Scotland (HES) photography exhibition, ‘Industry and Aesthetics’, which explores emotional responses to photographs of abandoned industrial spaces as a jumping off point to explore reactions to New Lanark’s decline as a working mill, and living village. The exhibition takes you on a journey of its past, present and imagining its future and overlaps with the Shining Lives exhibition in many ways. Make a whole day, or better still, a few days of it, book into the New Lanark Mill Hotel, complete with pool and dine in one of New Lanark’s restaurants, explore New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde, visit the Snapshots of a Lost World exhibition before enjoying Shining Lives: Fortunes of Fate.

To find out more about ‘Shining Lives: Fortunes of Fate’ at New Lanark World Heritage Site, click here.