Right lighting

Back at reference 1, I noticed how the flowers to either side of the stage at the Wigmore Hall, unusually but on the occasion in question, only worked when the hall lights came down and the stage lights came up. Something of the same sort happened yesterday at Canterbury Cathedral, where, in the morning, I thought the large yellow, wooden star hanging in the quire was rather large and ugly, bringing to mind the large and ugly white pendant lights in the nave of Westminster Abbey.

But later in the day, after dark, the star looked a great deal better in the artificial light then used. I was also at a greater distance, fairly near the dark, brown wood screen of the crossing, behind the camera in the snap above.

But oddly, neither Bing nor Google seem to be able to turn up an image of this star and I was reduced to taking a still from a livestream of one of their Choral Evensongs, to be found in the services part of the Cathedral website. In which, the star is rather too bright: but at least it serves to show the star I am talking about. I might say also that I associated from the star to the cross of the crucifixion. Is that part of the point?

Gemini was not very helpful on this occasion, first because I started by asking him about a cross rather than a star and second because I did not work out a way to supply him with a snap from the image included above. Maybe I will do better when I get my hands on the upcoming products described at reference 2 below?

In the meantime, Copilot did not do any better, although he did offer some suggestions about where I might find the image that is presently eluding search. Which remains rather odd in itself. 

PS 1: and my locking onto cross instead of star was irritating for me - as well as being confusing for them. Senior, late winter afternoon brain.

PS 2: Google Image Search does rather better with a suitable extract from the snap at the top of this post, turning up one image from Facebook with the wrong label and one from Instagram with the right label, included above. It remains odd how few of them there are to be found, especially given the number of snapping telephones in the place.

PS 3: rather later: the mystery is largely solved. BH has now explained to me that what we have is the Star of Bethlehem and it is a Christmas decoration, rather than a permanent installation. Probably only been up for a few days. A good illustration of why two brains is often better than one!

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/12/log-fired-oven.html.

Reference 2: Google’s new Project Astra could be generative AI’s killer app: Google just launched a ton of new products – including Gemini 2.0, which could power a new world of agents. And we got a first look – Will Douglas Heaven, MIT Technology Review – 2024.