Andromeda – The Project

Andromeda

The Story

Bagley Glass was started in 1871 as a glass bottle factory in the town of Knottingley in West Yorkshire. Bagley’s heyday was the period between the World wars (1918-1939) when the firm became a leader in inexpensive domestic pressed glassware.

One of their most popular products was a figurine called Andromeda.

In Greek mythology, Andromeda is the daughter of the Aethiopian king Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia. When Cassiopeia’s hubris leads her to boast that Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids, Poseidon sends the sea monster Cetus to ravage Andromeda as divine punishment.^[1] Andromeda is chained to a rock as a sacrifice to sate the monster, but is saved from death by Perseus.

There is a story that workers from the factory took a fancy to this figurine and would often smuggle some out of the factory. Periodically the factory would search the workforce as they crossed a bridge between work and home. To avoid being caught the workers would throw these glass objects from the bridge into the canal.

It is said that the canal bed is covered with these figurines, slowly making their way down the canal to Goole.

The Project

I will carry one of these figurines on a 28 km walk from the bridge at Knottingley to Goole. Every kilometer I will throw the figurine into the water, (the figurine will be attached to a piece of rope for retrieval. It might also be attached to a rock).

I will photograph the splash as the figurine hits the water. This will produce a series of 28 photographs.

I’ll then overlay a musical stave on each photograph, creating a series of 28 notes that will generate the score for a piece of music from Knottingley to Goole.

Update – In October 2019 I did the journey, I photographed the splashes and I generated the tune.

The 28 splashes can be found here Andromeda – 28 splashes

The tune will be played (in reverse order) on a barge sailing from Goole to Knottingley on 17th June 2023. Each note will be played when the barge hits the exact place on the canal where each note was generated, 4 years ago.

The figurine has been scanned by XPLOR (research and innovation center) and 3D printed to human size.

All this and more will be in an exhibition at The Art House, Wakefield 8th July – 9th September 2023.