It’s been around for years and yet its popularity knows no bounds. Video mapping, projection mapping, 3D mapping, spatial augmented reality or plain old mapping, call it what you will, the experience of a space, building or object wrapped in gorgeous imagery is guaranteed to provoke a response. Behind each projection mapping success, there are visionaries, creators, technicians, operators. And backing them, there’s the technology – Dataton’s WATCHOUT multi-display production and playback system, helping turn the vision into an experience.
A Shared Experience
The LUMA Projection Arts Festival, Binghamton, New York, USA is an international success story, the brainchild of a street photographer, a film editor and an event planner. Using projection mapping, LUMA transforms downtown buildings, like city hall, into fantastic art works. LUMA puts a strong emphasis on the art of storytelling through projection mapping. The 2021 festival featured six immersive exhibits from international artists, all with a strong storyline. An audience of some 30,000, some of whom return year after year, experienced the magic live.
The artist’s visions were realized with WATCHOUT-enabled projection mapping, backed by the technical knowhow of Show Sage LLC, Dataton’s North American partner for many years.
“We have really enjoyed teaming up with the producers of LUMA these past years. Not only is it an ideal application for WATCHOUT, but the festival has now become the eminent recurring projection-mapped art event in the U.S., with global roots,” said Jim Testa, President of Show Sage.
Festival Co-Founder Tice Lerner added, “Every year we challenge ourselves with our artist collaborators to push the boundaries of projection mapping. Scale, interactivity, unique devices for storytelling—it’s always a new complexity. WATCHOUT meets the demands of those challenges with ease.”
An International Experience
Does projection mapping always have to be on huge scale? Put simply, no.
BARTKRESA Studio is one of the leaders in innovative projection mapping design, famous for mesmerizing transformations of buildings such as Walt Disney Concert Hall and most recently the Yaamava’ Resort & Casino. In an international project, the studio also created a smaller sculpture that artists could map as part of a socially distant, projection arts festival.
Following a seven-week virtual workshop, artists were invited to create content for an animated show with Hako, a simple, manipulated cube shape, as the canvas for their projection designs. Mapping transforms the cube into a dynamic work of art, showing a simple shape in new, inspired ways. So far Hako sculptures have been exhibited in the US, Spain, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and Singapore. The project engaged 50 artists and received the AVIXA 2021 AV Experience Award for Best Collaborative Experience.
Dr William Franco displayed his Hako in Wellington, New Zealand. “This was my first experience using WATCHOUT’s 3D mapping capabilities and first time using a WATCHPAX. I was surprised how easy the 3D mapping was to use and the WATCHPAX was just a plug and play. The system worked flawlessly for the duration of the installation.”
An Immersive Experience
Step into the artist’s world… we’ve all marvelled at the exhibitions that use large-scale projection to create immersive environments from masterpieces. Beyond Monet in Toronto pairs traditional paintings and cutting-edge projection technology, to bring visitors into the heart of the impressionist’s incredible world of light and color. By Normal Studio for Paquin Entertainment, Beyond Monet, utilizes forty-six projectors, running under Dataton WATCHOUT, a host of WATCHPAX media servers and Show*Station™ production workstations provided by Dataton’s North American partner, Show Sage.
Beyond Monet re-opens in February 2022, so if you’re in the Toronto area, don’t miss it!
From indoor stage effects to larger-than-life visuals on architectural landscapes, mapping is an outstanding medium to create a memorable experience. Why not take your next story to a new level with projection mapping?
#projectionmapping #datatonwatchout #lumafestival #hako #NormalStudioMTL #normalstudioteam
Lead image courtesy of LUMA
Further information:
dataton.com
showsage.com
lumafestival.com
bartkresa.com
hako.bartkresa.com
normal.studio