The Demiourgos

We have been working on a DVD project for Leiden University all week. While the main team was shooting footage in the fair city of Leiden, I have been busy constructing the universe. This C4D universe expands around the figure of The Great Unmoved Mover, the Demiourgos, Plato's Architect of the Universe, i.e. William Blake's "The Ancient of Days" (1794).

We needed something to go with an exposé that also touches on the Intelligent Design theory of evolution. (This strange reversal to medieval thought is all very "hip" these days.(•) I remembered Blake's image of the God-like Engineer from my days as a student at the Art History Department of the Amsterdam Free University. The "story" of the shot is that we see our world from a Communications Satellite-like perspective and zoom out to see the Demiourgos at work. Pretty straight-forward and great fun. Of course, there is not much time, so it will all remain rather sketchy and somewhat carelessly stylized. I am nevertheless quite happy about the first results. (I am rendering out my first run as we "speak".)

(•) Let us hope that the present Renaissance of Medieval Philosophy & Theology is spent before I am required to construct C4D projects featuring flat planets!)