Sir Walter Scott’s “On the Massacre of Glencoe” digitally illuminates the very landscape that inspired it.
image via youtube screen capture // 'On the Massacre of Glencoe' Projection Time-lapse - Sir Walter Scott
Two hundred-year-old poetry commemorating a 300-year-old conflict may not, at first, seem like the most exciting reading to those for whom poetry is not already a passion. That said, it’s hard not to appreciate the beauty of Sir Walter Scott’s “On the Massacre of Glencoe” after seeing it projected onto the side of the picturesque Scottish mountain Buachaille Etive Beag. Regardless of whether you’re a poetry fan or not, there’s something truly special about seeing Scott’s verse illuminate the very landscape from which it was inspired:
The time lapse video, created by Scottish design firm Double Take Projections, was done using a process called “projection mapping,” in which the unique contours of a surface are digitally mapped, and upon which animations and graphics can then be seamlessly projected.
As The Creator’s Project points out, Double Take’s decision to project “On The Massacre Of Glencoe” is a particularly poignant one, coinciding with the 300th anniversary of the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, which Sir Walter Scott commemorated nearly 100 years later in his poem. Now, 200 years after that, Scott has become an unknowing collaborator in this combination of cutting-edge technology and centuries-old art. In doing so, he and Double Take have revealed a new way to appreciate both the words and landscapes that have inspired and moved so many for so long.