After photographing the public part of the Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph I walked up to Trafalgar Square. The day was ending and it was already dark by the time I got near to Westminster tube station via Whitehall.
And there on the Elizabeth Tower were projected alternating squares in green, pink, and purple like a chessboard with letters and numbers in the squares, and two large, thin circles in white superimposed over the squares.
I photographed the tower with my iPhone 16, and wondered what exactly I was looking at.
It turns out that I was looking at a projection mapping UV calibration grid designed to ensure proper alignment of the ‘falling poppies’ display to follow.
The calibration grid is needed because the whole business of projecting high-power images from street level to high up on a complex 3D structure like the Elizabeth Tower requires technical alignment beforehand.
The program uses the straight lines of the grid squares (labeled with coordinates) to warp, stretch, and map the digital image so it fits the stonework. Then, once calibrated, the grid is replaced with the visual artwork.
So I happened to be there when the image was being calibrated, and had the pleasure of seeing ‘behind the scenes’ as it were.
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