Vicky ParryYork-based filmmaker Nik Morris has created an animated installation where audiences are immersed in 5 billion years of York from The Big Bang to the even bigger bang of the recent financial crisis. The film is designed to project on four two-storey high screens in the unique 3Sixty demonstration space in the Ron Cooke Hub on the University of York’s Heslington East campus.
The animation was commissioned for the 2012 York Festival of Ideas and explores this year’s theme: ‘Metamorphoses’. The film’s creator said: “York’s history of metamorphosis provides unique raw materials for a great story. This city stands on the shoulders of Romans, Vikings, Chocolate factories and trains.” Nik added: “I wanted to encourage an emotional connection with an historical tapestry we often take for granted, so focussed the film around a character – a small red dot with one eye – who becomes an accidental witness to The Big Bang, the birth of the Sun, and York’s geological development from hostile volcanic landscape to a diverse modern city. Kids and grown-ups have enjoyed sharing the journey with this cute character.” On the 5 billion year timescale shown in the film, he added that “placing the growth of a city in context of the largest forces in nature demonstrate just how much we’ve achieved against the odds.”
The film screened at the grand opening of the festival on 14 June, and there will be rolling screenings in The Ron Cooke Hub from 2pm-4pm on the 30 June – the final day of the festival – where events focus on architecture. For more information on the day’s events click here.
Nik Morris is a film, animation and theatre director who recently graduated from the University of York’s Department of Theatre, Film and Television. His work includes online commercials for the Brush DJ app and “YouShare in the Cloud”; the ‘Lonely Man’ music video for Roundhouse Records’ artist Tres B; and the stage-drama ‘The Park Keeper’ made with award-winning Belt Up Theatre. His website is here.
