Back in December of last year, Bombay Sapphire (the premium gin brand) launched a competition called ‘Project Your Imagination’, inviting people across the world to demonstrate their imagination by submitting images, poems and other ideas that would go on to inspire a new technologically advanced 3D projection to be shown on an iconic building. After testing out the technology on the Queen’s House at Greenwich they then carried out a series of competition rounds across the world, with the five finalists being whittled down by voters on Facebook. Erjola Veliaj from Albania had the winning entry, and last night I was lucky enough to be invited along to an event on the Thames to see the result.
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| One of the Bombay Sapphire cocktails we sampled… |
Our evening started at 7:30 on the opulent Silver Sturgeon which was moored at the Savoy Dock in Central London. Handed a key, we then made our way inside and for a few hours were treated to a whole series of Bombay Sapphire cocktails and lovely canapes while we made our way slowly along the river to Battersea Power Station. One of those keys, by the way, would fit into the lock of a mysterious box that was set at the centre of the boat’s main deck, and it turned out that the person with the lucky key opened it to find a ticket for a dinner for two at the Savoy! Elsewhere onboard there was a Bombay Sapphire photo-booth, but all was not what it seemed – it turned out that there was an artist secreted inside the booth sketching caricatures of each of the people who sat inside, with often unflattering results!
We continued to ply our way along the river, and the boat finally slowed as we made the final approach to the power station, and guests filed upstairs onto the open top deck to witness what turned out to be an absolutely jaw-dropping sound and light show. Vast moving projections were cast on the end of the building – there were Rubik’s cubes, glitter balls, pistons that rose up and down Battersea’s chimneys, and even twin representations of Elioja’s face which each must have been a hundred feet high. After a few minutes huge Bombay Sapphire logos sparked and crackled on the side of the building to mark the end of the show. In fact I don’t need to describe it any further, because you can see it for yourself – here’s the video that was shot last night (and that’s the Silver Sturgeon in the foreground if you’re wondering… )
What an amazing night – I don’t get to experience things like this all that often!
June 9, 2011
Events