The cold, dark days of winter in Montreal came to life with Fascinoscope, an eight-part interactive video installation designed and realized by Lüz Studio, as part of the city’s fifth annual Luminothérapie (Light Therapy) public art competition in the Quartier des Spectacles, the city’s arts district. The projections were seen from dusk at 4:30pm to 11pm during the week, and until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays, from December 10, 2014 through February 1, 2015.
Fascinoscope created a carnival-like ambiance with images projected on eight building façades in the Quartier des Spectacles, bringing them to life with the sights and sounds of an early 20th-century carnival and its attractions. An original soundtrack of organ, bass, and drum accompanied each series of images. “All of the custom content was drawn by hand,” explains Matthieu Larivée, visual designer at Lüz Studio. “We wanted to be true to the period of the early 20th century. That way, these images contrast to what we are seeing on a day-to-day basis these days: advertising, LED screens, store signs, etcetera.” The Lüz team also comprised multimedia director Sébastien Deschênes, Sébastien Lépine, designers Émilie Fortier and Jonas Libon, and production director Ian Dubois.
The team worked on the content for eight months. “We started with a blank page and created the storylines,” notes Larivée. “It’s an open project; you can do pretty much what you want, and we felt that the contemporary graphics and trendy colors you usually see up there are very much the same, so we wanted to go back to our theatrical roots for the images. When you walk into that square, you are pulled into the story, and the characters that weave them, in two-minute clips.”
After the hand-drawn content was created, various software programs were used including Adobe Photoshop and After Effects, Maxon Cinema 4D, and AutoCAD 3ds Max. Playback was via a VYV Xenon media server, which is permanently installed and managed by the Quartier des Spectacles, where events follow one after the other on those façades throughout the year. The projectors are also permanently installed, with a total of 27 Christie Digital projectors used for various events in the Quartier des Spectacles: five Roadster S+20Ks, 13 Roadster S+22K-Js, six Roadster HD18Ks, and two Roadster 16K-S projectors.
Outside the Saint-Laurent metro station, the work’s focal point, the public was invited to play four interactive games, one at a time, created by Lüz Studio and inspired by carnival classics. Players controlled the games with four small punching bags fitted with sensors that measured their rotation and speed. By punching the bags, players interacted with the projections and scored points to win the games.
Lighting was only used as ambient light for the interactive games to help participants see what they were doing at the players’ podia and help the audience enjoy what they were watching. The blinking and flashing lights for the winners—16 Chauvet COLORado 1-Tri IP LED wash lights—were integrated into the games, along with 14 Lumenpulse Lumenfacade LED linear luminaires. Additional fixtures included four ETC 575W Source Four PARs. The lighting was run by an MA Lighting grandMA2 console located with the game computer in a container on the street that served as an ad hoc control room.
“In very cold weather, we expected issues with the electronics and had to replace some batteries,” concludes Larivée. “For us, there was a lot of R&D, but we hope there is a second life to all this, as it can be exported very easily. Other than the punching bag with the two sensors, it’s all in a computer. That’s the beauty of this project.”
Check out the video montage below.