Stage Directions: The beautiful neoclassical walls, columns and pediment in the courtyard at The Bushnell lent themselves to the dynamic and colorful graphics and animations created by the UConn students. The Bushnell has been a gathering place for arts, education and community activities in Greater Hartford for almost 90 years. ATD Audio Visual, a full-service event production and rental company in the Bronx, NY, serving as technical partner, selected the Christie Spyder X80 multi-window processor to facilitate this project.
4 comments:
I was a little surprise after seeing the picture of what the façade of this building looks like to hear that the ATD president thought its was the surface was “ideal for projection mapping” I would think that all the 3D shapes and curves would make it pretty difficult to manage at such a large size, but I guess that it still is a large, static surface, which is much easier to map than anything small and intricate or moving. I usually read these projection mapping articles because I like to watch the animation sequences produced by whoever is behind the installation. I loved the variety of content incorporated into the sequence showed in the video, both in the style f animation, and in the music choices. It is awesome that these students that were learning the basics of projection mapping had the opportunity to work with a company like ATD and all their fancy equipment, and to have their installation up for so long and viewed by so many people. What a neat experience.
While the mapping technology used in this massive scale projection video is undoubtedly impressive, I am firmly of the belief that technology itself cannot carry the artwork it is helping to execute. In all honesty, I thought a lot of the visuals felt tacky and two-dimensional, despite the incredibly dimensional building that the projections are being mapped to. There was no storyline, cohesive message, or visual intensity worth getting invested in. In other words, the artistry was extremely lacking for me personally, and the most significant impression that I got from the video was just a constant reminder that I am looking at a showcase of the technology. I’ve seen other examples of outdoor projection mapping onto architecture and urban landscapes and this one simply does not stand out to me as a unique or exciting experience. I think that media work has to be careful to walk the right side of this line. I often find that the video/media work that is able to convey a memorable impact is one that feels human at its core and reminds us that its conception came from a creative and thoughtful place.
This video was so strangely relaxing and satisfying. I love all the creative ways they utilized the outside surfaces of the Bushnell Performing Arts Center. There were clearly different animation styles from different students exhibited in their presentation, and I thought all of their work looked fantastic. I wonder what prompted these animation students to start working with projection mapping, and how they plan to use it in their work and careers going forward. Projection mapping is such an interesting and particularly unique skill, and I love seeing it cross over into multiple industries simultaneously. How does an animator’s projection work differ from that of someone in theatre, or someone in advertising? Perhaps I will learn this going forward in my undergraduate studies, but I think it is a really awesome thing to think about. I wonder what difficulties these students ran into while working on such a large scale final project with so many other people involved.
This projection mapping in so cool. It makes a lot of sense that the design students made these over templates that were handed to them, it is so hard to get a template just right to match the surface that something is projected on. The making of these templates is probably very time consuming, and these students are here to learn design. I especially loves the variety in style that these students showed in the “performance”. In the video on this site, they play through a bunch of the designs. Some are futuristic, some more collage old-school like. I especially love projections for this matter of being able to make whole walls mimic paper and clippings from home. It makes our small dainty work bigger, without having to really make it “big”. It is also so important to remember that just because the medium is digital, we do not have to take on that same look in our designs, as many people get stuck doing.
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