There are many ways of representing the world around us and medieval conceptions of the universe are no exception. These can help in the effort to understand the complexities of different cultural frameworks, working to different principles and basic assumptions. What we have here is three different responses to Grosseteste’s On the Sphere and Grosseteste’s broader scientific vision: The Medieval Cosmos a 2D visualisation of Grosseteste’s cosmology produced by Nick Holliman and narrated by Sir Thomas Allen; sound and light projections from The Projection Studio; and a series of line drawing from multi-media artist Alexandra Carr, a long-term collaborator with Ordered Universe.
Next, Sound and Light artists Ross Ashton and Karen Monid of The Projection Studio and their wonderful creations: Horizon and World Machine. Ordered Universe have worked in close collaboration with Ross and Karen for over five tears – World Machine world- premiered at Durham Lumiere 2015, Horizon, which is designed around On the Sphere, world- premiered at the Napa Lighted Art Festival in California, and Euopean-premiered at Light Up Poole in Dorset, in 2019
And, in a different mode Alexandra Carr, a multi-media artist, who spent a year as Artist in Residence at Durham University, in 2018, working with Giles Gasper and other members of the team, but whose engagement with the project goes back to 2014, brings a different sensitivity to Grosseteste’s cosmic vision. Her line drawings respond to On the Sphere, On Light, and On the Six Differentiae (up, down, left, right, backwards and forwards). Spot the helical progression of the sun above and below the earth, and eclipses, from On the Sphere.
