Post 44: Back to the Alys Stephens Center Project

 In the end, I was asked by the Alys Stephens Center to do the outdoor closing show for their 2012 Season, in April 2013. The working title is "Lux Somnum: Light Dreams".
     We will have two big 20,000 lumens projector for 2 nights, and the brick facade will be covered with ivory fabric. I am planning to do a 20 minutes or so Architectural Projection Animation like the one I did last year for the Red Cross PTTR (Paint The Town Red video/music Festival)downtown.

  But I feel it is not enough for a Blockbuster Closing Event, and we can't keep playing my show constantly in a loop. We want to make it much bigger, a celebration of the Arts and an evening to remember, something never seen before in Birmingham, Alabama.
  We need other visual attractions, and music. Since we have these expensive projectors for the whole evening 8 to 12 or so , I would like to share them and have other large scale projections on the building alternating with my piece all evening, interactive displays,games, all accompanied with great music.
  Which got me into Video Jockey stuff and live video layering. Then I got into the mapping of videos and images onto sculpture. There is a tremendous potential for experimentation with those techniques for serious artists. I would like to have several outdoor displays of "Augmented Sculpture" using smaller 5000 lumens projectors. I am also investigating the use a live video feed of dancers mixed with graphic loops in the VJ software, and the possibilities for interactivity using the Kinect camera(the one now sold by Microsoft with the X-Box for games). It has a laser beam that draws you in 3D, and some people are working on software to use these 3D renderings.

  I just started experimenting with Modul8 and Resolume Avenue connected to MadMapper mapping software, to project layers of video and images on basic sculptural shapes(sphere, cone, pyramid, cube,column, etc...), and am very excited, even blown away with the Artistic possibilities...

 I posted a small video test on YouTube:

             LuxSomnum Test 1

as well as a Mapping we did with my friend Randy for the Valentine Day Erotic Art Show

 So I am offering to share the equipment with other visual Artists to make this closing event a really big Light Show. I would like the UAB Art Department to collaborate on the project(Photography, Sculpture, Video, Graphic Arts, Computer Art, etc...) teachers and students, as well as other local Artists like you that might be interested.

  We have been brainstorming with Jessica and Adam about ALL the things that could be be done with the smaller projectors he found.

Post 43: Bottom Line, and technical specs

    I have to admit I was rather disappointed overall with the Festival of Lights 2011, and I heard many people around making the same comment... This is supposed to be one of the oldest, largest and best Festival of it's kind in the world. Only the largest and probably most costly show on the "Place des Terreaux" impressed me. According to my calculations, just the 4 day rental for the 7 projectors used would be in the $200,000 range. I brought that up with the Artist, and she told me they got special deals on rental, and that her total budget including production costs was 160,000 Euros, about $210,000. One of the other Artists told me a minute of show cost around 10,000 Euros, which explains why the show was only 5.5 minutes long. 
  In my opinion, the global budget was split between too many shows, a total of 70 in all, scattered all over town, many of them rather uninteresting. Granted, big Architectural projections are expensive, but I would personally much prefer only a dozen really impressive shows gathered in the walkable downtown area.
   Nevertheless, this visit was very important and valuable because of the first hand information I gathered from the Artists themselves, that changed our approach to the Alys Stephens Center Project, and made it feasable. The main info was that they used only between 50 and 65 lumens per square meter, which translates to 4.7 to 5.5 lumens per square foot. Granted, they all agreed they would love to have twice as much, the brighter the better, but we are far below the 20+ lumens per square foot used in the American estimate. The info I found on the Coca Cola Projection in Atlanta seems to have been correct after all.
   I immediately got in touch with the suppliers in Birmingham and the Alys Stevens Center to get revised estimates with half the power we thought we needed, and that brought the project within budget. Using only two 20, 000 lumens projectors on the 4250 sq. ft of facade would work out at 9.4 lumens per square foot, almost twice the French figure. We have a good deal of ambient light, but that still should give us a reasonably bright image. Of course, the more outdoor lights we can turn off near the building, the better the show will be.
 The big show used two stacked 35,000 lumens Christie projectors for each half of the large 32,000 sq.ft facade , or 4.4 lumens  per sq.ft. That was sufficient, as the square was very dark, but the HD image didn't look very sharp at such a scale. We will get almost 4 times more detail on our "small" 4250 sq.ft wall...

Post 42: Fête des Lumières, Lyon, France, Part 2

   I saw the second Architectural show on the first day too, but went back the next day to talk to the two young Artists again and do a video on a tripod. It was at the "Théatre des Célestins":

which has seen impressive shows over the years:

   The idea this year was to be interactive with the public, and the façade was turned into a simplified pin ball machine with a console where people took turns playing:

 The public apparently loved it, but the Artistic value was in my opinion rather limited, and it became quickly boring to watch, with only a red curtain opening at the beginning, and vegetation growing at the end:
               "Urban Flipper"

  The third true Architectural projection was on the "Gare Saint Paul":

which had also seen impressive shows in past years:

   This year, it was also an interactive show with a large touch screen where the public could choose a theme, colors, and patterns:

   I was the first in line that second night, and the possibilities seemed rather limited. There were long interruptions between "players", as things had to be explained again, and numerous computer glitches. There were a lot of choices and combinations, so it was more interesting than the pinball machine to me, but too slow and with long interruptions. Not much true Art there either, as most people didn't know what to do, and no story at all:
      "Gare Saint Paul 1"
                     "Gare Saint Paul 2"

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.

Post 40: The Test

  The only way to know just how many lumens we need was to do a test and see for myself. I have a 2500 lumens projector, and Alys Stephens Center has a 5000 lumens projector, so I picked a roughly 260 sq.ft area at the bottom of the building, onto which my projector would be appear roughly the equivalent of 40,000 lumens for the whole building, and their projector the equivalent of 80,000 lumens:

   I built 2X4 frames to fit in the niches on which I stretched 120" wide quilt backing muslin, one bleached, one natural:

 I made a short animated presentation animation with a variety of colors and brightnesses, and tested it last week:
      Alys Stephens Center Mini Test Show
 I seemed obvious we needed the bigger projector, which confirmed my estimation of about 80,000 lumens.

Post 39: The Logistics

  My Alys Spephens contacts Jessica and Adam came to my studio to talk about the projection, and view a projection of my Red Cross Show, and liked my proposal. The big question now was the cost of the project. I tried to get an estimate on equipment first from the guy that rented the projectors for the Red Cross PTTR, who told me he understood what I needed this time around, but in the end, he dragged on giving me a quote, I got tired of calling him back, and he still has not called me back. I guess it was out of his league, and he got scared...
   Adam suggested I call Holt Audiovisual, the oldest in the business in Birmingham, whom he had worked with before, and felt were very reliable. We had a meeting in front of the building to talk to them about the project , measure distances, look at possible projector locations, etc... They came back with an estimate of $42,500, which they found too high. So I got another estimate which was lower, but using only 30,000 lumens instead of 80,000lumens. I also contacted LG Systems in Texas and Obscura Digital in California, which are the big players in the US and have done major shows internationally. Only Lg Systems answered my enquiry, with an estimate that blew mw away: 200,000lumens(10 projector), and $469,000 for one night with 4 minutes of custom show with 15 minutes of "filler" images playing for about 6 hours in a loop. Plus $166,000 extra for a week, and $25,000 to $50,000 per minute of extra custom material...So a 20 minutes show for 4 days would be over a million dollars! No wonder we see so few Architectural Mapping Projections in the good old U.S.A...Only Coca Cola and the movie studios can afford them.
  So the other question was: do we need 30,000lumens, 80,000 lumens, or 200,000lumens? Quite a range for the same 4300 sq.ft of facade...
  My own guess would be about 80,000, 20 lumens per square foot being the average standard for a dark area.

Post 38: Some Rough Ideas

  We definitely start the show with a projection of the building as it normally is:

  Then the sign swings,falls off, bounces off the lower colonnade, and crashes to the ground with  a big noise:

  Strange things start happening to the brick facade, with the blocks sliding in and out with the beat of the music, flying off and turning in space,falling to the ground with a thump, flying up like balloons, etc...  At the same time, things can appear in the doors and windows, drive by, fly by,colors can change and flash, just about anything is possible...

We could as evening comes tear a hole in the facade, and show dancers performing inside:

Or we could open up a larger stage and have any kind of performance we please:

The whole building could become a stage with a red curtain:

  Or we could have crazy performances taking place in front of the building. Motorcycles are one of my passions, and I have already talked to Mary Foshee about possibly choreographing an acrobatic "Bad BiKer Dance" on top of my big Victory Vegas:

  Once we are over playing with the real building, we can make it into another building by stacking the colonnade, 

changing colors, etc... 

  We could burn it:

  We could have an antique set of tarot cards flip and rotate and fly around in the openings:

  We could make it into a 17th Century Spanish Vargueno, and have stuff jump in and out of the drawers as they open and close:

 Stay tuned. More ideas to follow later...