From the design studio that brought you Shogyo Mujo, a 360° projection-mapped sculpture, now comes Sviatovid, a four-sided, faceted totem that stands fifteen feet tall at a higher resolution and brightness.
Five years since Shogyo Mujo, BARTKRESA studio (BKS) has debuted their latest sculptural new media art experiences to the more than 80,000 attendees at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2019. “While historians debate the histories of a ninth century Slavic deity, and a medieval sculpture of the same name, we took inspiration from the all-seeing nature of the figure with four faces. We designed a library of musically-driven animations to be a reflection of Sviatovid’s distinct perspective and journey,” says Ilana Marks, creative producer for BKS. Like its origin story, Sviatovid is on a global expedition to bring people together. After ISE, it moved on to Poland where it was exhibited at the Centre for the Meeting of Cultures.
Founder of the design studio, Bart Kresa, worked with longtime creative team member Akira Wakui, who used Autodesk Maya animation software and Pixologic ZBrush to sculpt the four-sided totem-like shape that became the sculpture. BKS designed the form of the sculpture to be an ideal canvas for projection mapping and to deconstruct into smaller pieces for ease of transport and installation. With a team of over 30 artists, BKS created a library of otherworldly projections set to music by Slawomir Kulpowicz, mixed by Halo Studio, to animate the sculpture.
BKS tested a 3D-printed scale model with a pico projector to accurately adjust the sculpture and projection designs accordingly. The sculpture was molded and cast in fiberglass for a surface quality that is of the caliber of a race car or speed boat, which improves consistency and accuracy in assembly and projections.
“We do all of the programming in-house, as well, using Dataton Watchout for playback. The full 3D alignment tool was the perfect complement to the precision of the fabrication of the sculpture,” Bart Kresa adds. “Watchout 6 allows me to be pixel-accurate in aligning. The combination of the well-engineered sculpture fabrication, with the Panasonic projectors, and the Watchout media server gave a better projection quality from inside out.” BKS also used SketchUp to determine staging and construction requirements.
Sviatovid utilizes four Panasonic PT-RQ32K laser projectors “because they are small for the light output, and the laser light source makes them reliable enough to run 24 hours per day,” explains Kresa. “When we started testing the designs on the full-scale sculpture, we had to go back and enhance some of the designs to take advantage of the projectors’ sharpness and resolution.” Panasonic dedicated a task team to work with and support BKS to better understand and advance the connection between the quality of the projector and the projections.