Post 41: the Festival of lights 2011 in Lyon, France, Part 1 December 8-11

   My sister and I went downtown early on the afternoon of the 8th to look around at the installations and try to talk to the technicians before the festival started that night at  6. I had time to observe the projectors used, and luckily was able to talk to the three Artists in charge of the only 3 true Architectural Mapping Projections this year among a total of 70 light displays or events.
   I have to say I was expecting more impressive stuff for a Festival that prides itself as being one of the first of the genre in the world. I don't know if it was cutting the budget, trying to save energy, or just spreading 70 events in multiple areas of the city, but the fact of the matter is that the main downtown area has less big shows than in previous years. My view, and it seems to be supported by a number of regular visitors I talked to, is that the quality is going down overall, and that it would be better to do a smaller number of impressive stuff in the downtown area than to do a lot of mediocre stuff all over the place...
  For example, there was no illuminations at all on the Eglise Saint Nizier, which had great shows in the past:

         The Cathedrale Saint Jean only had very basic color washes and pattern instead of a "real show as in previous years:

  Anyhow, I manage to observe and talk to the three Artists in charge of the only three true Architectural Mapping Projections this year, and collected valuable first hand information and advice that changed my approach to the Alys Stephens Center 2012 Season Opener.
  By far the largest of the three was on the huge Place des Terreaux: 

with its famous fountain by Bertholdi:

 There have been memorable shows on this square over the years:

   The Artist was Marie-Jeanne Gauthé, an "old timer" that has worked with the famous French composer/light show producer Jean Michel Jarre since before there were even digital projectors in 1986. The "Grande Dame" really wasn't particularly friendly, but did answer some of my questions. The concept for the show was great, the idea being that the four horses get lose and run wildly around the square while the woman driver runs around and laments trying to catch them and the buildings contort and shake and finally fall down:

   The above image was a concept rendering, the final show used a contemporary "too cute" young woman on a red background instead of the Rubenesque figure, and the buildings shook and moved and fell down, but never bent and rolled the way it looked in the concept.The horses were much bigger. It was nevertheless a great show, but only 5.5 minutes long. It was called:

             "Transe Nocturne"

  The video is shaky because of the crowd moving and the camera held above my head, plus the projection was from the 4 sides. I returned the next day and shot stationary videos on a tripod from all angles. I will post an edited 3D version when I get home.