Nerdist: Pokémon GO took took those fictional fighting creatures from playing cards and TV screens to the virtual world. However, no matter how much fun you had chasing them around town, they weren’t really there. They still only existed on a screen. Recently though, two of the most famous Pokémon actually did appear in the real world.
4 comments:
I find drone light shows a very interesting, and very specific form of art. On one hand, the appeal is clear: it allows for large scale flying light shows that are visible for miles. However, the tradeoff seems incredibly high. This is one of the first articles I’ve read about one that didn’t end in a horrible and expensive drone accident. Even so, the flying light shows continue to happen. People love a spectacle, and visible for miles is certainly a draw for an outdoor social distanced piece of art. Maybe in a few years this artform will grow to create new ways of lighting the sky that no one thought possible. There’s certainly a whole sky of opportunity. By then, the idea that drones aren’t worth the trouble might be dismissed as an old-fashioned approach to lighting. If that’s the case, I hope to start seeing more stories like this one: where the only disaster is a brutal pokemon battle.
Despite my personal vendetta against drones, I think that this kind of experience is really cool. This light show had it all. It brought out the nostalgia for kids and nerds a like who grew up with Pokemon. It made a spectacle akin to watching fireworks fight, but without the loud booming scary noise. And it was easily accessible, all anyone had to do was look up and see all of the pretty lit robots fight like animated fictional creatures. I hope the 8-bit music accompanied the performance because it was absolutely perfect. And this just opens the door to all of the light shows and performances we can make to keep people safe from being in closed spaces with each other and maintain social distance. Like yeah, I'm not saying shit like this hasn't been done before with holograms and light shows at concerts. This was just different, like watching the cartoons again for the first time.
A few months ago, I read another article about drone light shows that sort of scarred me; it was about how one drone company attempted to sabotage another drone company’s show by jamming their radio signals, causing hundreds of drones to plummet from the sky. Thankfully, this article was a more fun read than that (though I must admit that that one was also a fairly entertaining story). The article said that a total of 250 drones were used to create the giant, colorful outlines of Pikachu and Charizard, which is a larger number than I expected but it did clearly demonstrate to me how elaborate this whole process is. I have wondered what the future of drone light shows could look like; perhaps it could be developed as a more environmentally-friendly alternative to fireworks or such? Using a generally new technology to put on such intricate shows is really impressive; I am not even a Pokemon fan and I really want to watch this epic battle.
To be entirely honest, the thing that drew me into this article was it's absolutely buck wild title. Like most humans, I have a favorable opinion of Pokémon and pretty lights. After watching the video, I was in awe. I remember the Superbowl used similar technology for the half-time show (?) a few years ago, but I had no idea this was something *possible* outside of something as flashy, well-known, and well-funded as the Superbowl. For a second I thought it was a fireworks show but I was left surprised as soon as the little lights started moving, creating a sort of three-dimensional effect. I thought it was really well done. I wonder if this is something that could be implemented by theme parks in the future. There is a perpetual discussion around the nightly fireworks show in the Disney Parks for example, and this could act as a possible replacement.
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