Shows of light and wonder
Text 1: The Lantern Lecture, by Mary Ellingham
An original diary written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.
Friday. Papa took Jem and me to the Mechanics’ Institute to see the magic lantern lecture upon the Arctic regions. The hall was full, and when the gas was turned down there was a great rustle and a little scream from somewhere at the back. Then upon the white sheet appeared a ship locked in the ice, so large and bright that I felt the cold of it, and the whole room said “Oh!” together.
The lecturer, Mr Rudd, showed us icebergs as tall as cathedrals, and men in furs, and a white bear upon a floe. Best of all were the slides that moved: the Northern Lights came rippling across the sheet in green and crimson, and Jem, who is nine and pretends to despise everything, grabbed my hand in the dark.
Walking home I could not stop thinking of it. I have never been further than Scarborough, and tonight I stood upon the ice at the top of the world. Papa says it was only painted glass and a lamp, but I think it must be the most wonderful invention of the age.
Text 2: Inside the Painting, by Rhys Atwal
An original contemporary blog.
On Saturday I took my teenage daughter to one of those immersive digital exhibitions in an old warehouse, the kind where paintings are projected over every wall and floor. When the lights went down there was a nervous laugh from somewhere and then, suddenly, we were standing inside a starry night sky, stars swirling around our feet. About two hundred people went “Whoa” at the same time.
For an hour the room kept changing. Sunflowers grew up the walls taller than houses. Rain fell on a village street and somehow I felt chilly. Then the whole floor became a moving ocean, and my daughter, who is fifteen and finds most things embarrassing, took my arm without seeming to notice.
On the drive home we talked about it non-stop. I have never been anywhere near a gallery in France, but for an hour I had been inside a painting. My daughter pointed out that it was just projectors and a sound system. She is right. It still felt like the future.
Both writers describe a visit to a show that uses projected images.
What are the similarities between the writers’ experiences of the show?
Draw on evidence from both texts to support your answer.
160 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE English Language 2.3 Section A: Reading information and ideas – skills, covering 2.3.1 Identify and interpret key ideas, 2.3.2 Comment on writers’ language choices, 2.3.4 Summarise and synthesise across texts, 2.3.7 Evaluate usefulness, bias and misuse of evidence, 2.3.8 Use context to inform reading, and 2.3.9 Explore connections across texts. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.