the Eternal Sanctuary
the Eternal Sanctuary is a digital archive of LiDAR scans of ancient stone circles and standing stones in Ireland. A cleaned-up 3-D model of Drombeg Stone Circle was rendered at life size and relocated through augmented reality to an intersection in New York Cityโs East Village. Viewed through a personal device, the stones float above the street while the video moves slowly from the perspective of someone standing at the center of the circle. The ancient landscape and the contemporary city collapse into the same space. Around the stones, traffic signals, headlights, streetlamps and illuminated windows create a shifting field of artificial light that connects the work to an ongoing interest in synthetic illumination and the human ability to extend natural cycles of light.
The project extends online through an expanding archive of scanned stone circles and standing stones. LiDAR functions here as both a tool of preservation and a means of displacement. Once translated into digital form, these ancient structures are no longer fixed to their original geography and can be preserved, copied, accessed, and relocated. the Eternal Sanctuary considers what happens to monuments whose meaning is shaped by ancient permanence when their location becomes fluid. The digital model can travel almost anywhere, but the encounter still depends on a body standing somewhere. 2021โ2022
