A Global celebration of the Arts through Light, Video, Projection, Animation, Interactive Games and displays, Dance, Music, Art Displays, Art Show.
POSSIBLE NAMES:
"Light Dreams(Are made of this)!"
"Lux somnum: Light Dreams"
DESCRIPTION:
For this groundbreaking Season closing event, for the first time in Birmingham, the entire facade of the Alys Stephens Center will be transformed into a giant projection screen that will display throughout the evening images subliming and celebrating the union and intermingling of Art, Music and Light : a once in a lifetime animated Architectural Mapping Projection Show created specially to fit the building, an interactive endless flow of changing and moving animated images and videos to accompany the Music, a special old fashion 3D show with cardboard glasses, Luminous Artworks created especially by local Artists scattered on the grounds, light shows on Spencer Hall, a 24 ft immersive projection dome, giant interactive video games designed in cooperation with the Engineering Department, Augmented Sculpture displays, as well as a more "traditional" Art Show inside. Join us outside and inside the Alys Stephens Center for this Season closing unbridled celebration of the Arts through Light.
MAIN ARCHITECTURAL MAPPING PROJECTION SHOW:
Projection of a 20 minutes Surrealistic Mapped Animated Show on the main facade, deconstructing, reconstructing, rearranging, opening up, gutting, modifying the structure, etc…
Part of the show could be in 3D (Anaglyph type using cardboard red and cyan glasses(1000 for $250) that would also be used for other 3D displays and the Viscube. The best are supplied by Berezin.com
It is critical, since budget allows for only two 20K projectors(giving us about 10 lumens per square foot), that the plaza be as dark as possible during projection. That means covering all the lamp posts, and if possible some of the street lights(talk to the city about that).
Safety lighting should be concentrated on the ground, using no spill projectors and LED's. Obstacles such as curbs should be highlighted with strips of LED's.
The cans at the front of the building will have to come down.
All the openings will be covered using ivory muslin stretched over 2x2 frames(2x4's sawed in half are much cheaper), 12 total for the main facade. The brick will be covered with 120" wide muslin strips stretched between the roof and the lover arcade and weighted down with 10 ft lengths of 1" conduit in sewn pockets.
The sculpture REALLY needs to be gone… The best position for the projector would be far back at the entrance to the parking lot on a 16ft scaffold(I have one), so it would not interfere with anybody's viewing of the show. The quality of the projection would also be better that way.
Using a very short throw wide angle lens would place the scaffold smack on the plaza just a little back to the left of the circle(which we may have to do if the sculpture is not moved out of the way, unless we are willing to accept the shadow it would cast on the facade):
If the parking needs to be accessed, we could possibly build a truss tower on the tip of the concrete island, or move the scaffold back in the lot(problem with trees).
MONUMENTAL ENTRANCE GATE
The plywood structure would be placed at the top of the steps at the entrance street side, which is 12.5 ft wide.
It would consist of 2 x 8ft tall boxes topped wit 2 flat boxes and a pediment, plus two 18" balls:
The outside(street side) would have projected images of a gate with name of the event etc…:
We could also project limited mapped animation on the back side:
Or it could be used by another Artist for another project, or the engineering students for a game. 5K Projectors should be fine. They can be mounted vertically up on poles to the side of the walkway.
After the public has arrived and the show starts, a curtain with a slit could be dropped in the back of the gate to project on the whole bottom area, and still let people in and out.
DOME
I will be working for the 2013 PTTR on a whole dome projection covering as much of their 44 ft dome as possible. This is a pretty difficult proposition, and will need extensive testing with spherical mirrors to be pulled off.
Since the dome is too big and cumbersome to be erected for testing during the year, I am planning to build a smaller, simpler and lighter 24 ft dome out of 1" PVC pipe to run the tests:
We might just as well take advantage of that fact and use it for our Event. There is a perfect area for it next to the plaza in front of the church:
OLD CHURCH/SPENCER HALL
I would like to project on both sides of the church: a larger projection on the front if possible(possibly with paper taped over the red brick), and a smaller on the side limited to the round window. The stained glass would be covered with styrofoam panels cut to fit, or just plain paper.
The tower could be spotlighted with colored gels on up lights(plain halogen work lights are fine, I have a bunch), and the stained glass lighted from the inside:
The projections on the two sides would of course be more than just color washes… I am hoping to find somebody to put together a short mapped projection.
FRONT AWNING LIGHTING(street side)
It would look good from the street if we had up lights with colored gels on the front awning of the Building, and colored gels on the post lights:
PHANTOGRAMS
That is something I have been interested in for years, as a particularly impressive part of 3D. They would have to be projected on the ground with an overhead projector. For details, see my blog on the subject:
The imageshave to be projected vertically on the ground, and pop up in 3D ABOVE THE GROUND. They appear to float in mid air.
TABLETOP MAPPED SHAPES WITH VJ PROJECTION FOR PATRONS'S PARTY IN COURTYARD
The planter would have to be moved and replaced with a 4 x8 ft plywood tabletop covered in black cloth, larger if we want to put food on it.
The projector would be on an 8ft pole about 10 ft away from the table, possibly on top of a round food table.
INTERACTIVE STUFF IN COLLABORATION WITH THE UAB ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT AND THE 3D LAB OF DR. SONI
Giant pinball:
This interactive game was voted most popular by the public at this last Festival of Lights in Lyon, France. A console allows spectators to play.
See about the possibility of splitting the screen and running 2 games at the same time side by side on the big facade, possibly different games, possibly same game with two players.
Touch screen architectural mapping:
A choice of pre canned images, colors and graphic can be chosen and combined by a spectator on a touch screen console.
Interactive floor :
Vertical projection on the ground of the plaza that reacts to the movements of people walking on it(fish swimming, leaves blowing, balls rolling, water rippling, squares lighting up. May be a giant keyboard that lights up and plays music(Tom Hank in Toy Story) with a computer synthesizer(Garage Band).
The squares in the floor light up when walked on:
The fish react to the feet:
The keyboard lights up and plays music. The lights could be a hint and help play a tune:
The leaves are swept up with a broom:
The balls are kicked by the feet and bounce on each other:
Vertical projection on smoke.
Investigate the possibility of projecting on smoke from a smoke machine, either vertically, or at a 45 degrees angle.
Projection on water spray:
That would require building a shallow pool of water about 15 x 10 ft with a 2 x4's frame and a black plastic dropcloth, finding a pump capable to spraying water through multiple small nozzles to create a water mist about 8 ft tall. The images are projected on it for a very surrealistic cloudy waving effect where they appear suspended in mid air.
Light stick animation:
The stick figures I saw in Lyon were made of fluorescent tubes, and lined up across and along a pool of water. The animation made it look like the figures were running down lanes and jumping obstacles.
LED Sylized figures:
Again as seen in Lyon last December, a number of LED figures, both very stylized and childish, and more shapely and realistic:
Also plain boxes with backlit pictures:
A "CINCOCENTO AQUARIUM":
ANIMATA SYNCHRONIZED PUPPET DANCE
That is a project by a group at Budapest University called:
A camera tracks the movements of the dancer using Eyesweb software and makes the puppet follow them. We are hoping to use the Kinect Camera instead with the Cocoa Kinect Application:
The Kinect camera may have other applications as well, from feed back of dancers controlling the movements of the puppet in Animata, and possibly other interactive games and displays, like the Viscube:
"Mini Viscube" 3D immersive space:
This is inspired by a visit at Dr. Soni's 3D LAB , and his fabulous VISCUBE:
The lab setup is too cumbersome to be moved outside, so I am envisioning a simplified version set up in the passage under the big awning:
We would need to collaborate with the students of Dr. Soni, to see if they could make a simplified cube work with their stuff.
See if we can use the Kinect camera as a motion sensor instead of a hand joystick or Nitendo controller.
I could possibly supply imagery for an elevator like Alice fall in the hole(see SVANKMAJER'S ALICE)
COLLABORATION WITH LOCAL ARTISTS FOR AUGMENTED SCULPTURES AND ART VIDEOS:
Joe Wilson, Randy Gachet( http://randygachet.com/index.html ), Karen Graffeo? Janice Kluge? Leaza Cole, Bala Boyd(winner at Alys Beach with a great black and white video)?
Find somebody that can do live painting on an iPad.
These pieces can be scattered around the perimeter of the plaza.There is space on the "grassy knoll" by the street for a couple of pieces:
There is a large vertical projection wall on the right wall by the entrance(can also be used for an interactive game, or live painting), and one in the courtyard(can be only partially used for horizontal projection):
PERFORMING ARTISTS
As seen at the Festival of Lights in Lyon, France(Compagnie Zanka: http://www.labellezanka.com/ ):
LUMINOUS BALLONS
As seen at the Festival of Lights in Lyon, France, these are low cost highly effective points of light:
We would have to use light weight low power color LED's.
LANTERNS IN TREES
Another low cost effective way to generate"points of light".They can be simple paper or cardboard cutouts with a spot, or shaped paper lanterns with light bulbs inside...
As seen at the Festival of Lights in Lyon, France:
Recycled letters from old neon signs
Alice Tent for Children:
A rough vision of a white tent and tunnel with projections from the outside? Just an idea for someone to take off and run...
General Layout
Click on image for larger view:
When I finally got the Key picture of the facade the whole Architectural mapping would be based on, I started cutting it up and putting every single part of it on a separate layer in Photoshop:
I ended up with about 250 layers: 5 rows of 11 "brick drawers", 26 or so columns, bases, thick and thin tops, thick and thin lintels, 8 light cans, 6 niches, window panes, doors, sidewalk, awning, planters, trash can, etc...
