Heart strangely warmed

Heart Strangely Warmed

At the moment of his conversion, founding father of the Methodist movement John Wesley, described his experience of salvation and renewal in his journal in 1738, writing,

‘I felt my heart strangely warmed’. 

This spectral image of the interior of the Penryn Methodist Church has come to mark this buildings own moment of conversion, from the local Methodist Chapel to a contemporary Art Centre in Penryn.

It was created at a time when the church was to be closed and the building sold. The local community were concerned that access to the wonderful interior of this building would be lost to the town. In response we captured this image, which is one view of a virtual 3D pointcloud created using a LIDAR scanner. 

Read more about that process of capturing the image in our article Digital-Heritage.

Missing from this image and the digital scan are the sonic qualities of the chapel, which many visitors to the space describe as amazing. The desire to record the unique sound qualities of the space -an impulse response and the auditory plan- became the catalyst for the Church Records project.

This image has haunted me throughout the making of Church Records, and has now become synonymous with the project. For me it, captures this buildings own ‘heart strangely warmed’ and has come to mark the moment of its own salvation and revival, from chapel to contemporary art space, and it’s conversion to Art Centre Penryn, has given hope to the town, that it will continue to be at the heart of the community. 

Heart Strangely Warmed

Frances Crow 2025

Pointcloud image of Penryn Methodist Chapel generated using Falmouth University’s LIDAR scanner by Frances Crow with technical support from Falmouth University and Exeter University’s Immersive Business programme.