Illuminate Yaletown is a light and projection artists’ event held each February in Vancouver, brightening the winter nights in the downtown neighbourhood.

Stuart’s Yaletown Project Mapping Test #2 installation uses the emerging art form of “mapping” to transform a building into a screen, making it a light-driven moving sculpture.

Recent technologies have broken the rectangular barriers of media presentation formats. The limitations of 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios are becoming a thing of the past. The same goes for 2D screens. What if, in addition to making the content 3D, the screen was also 3D? Why even have traditional screens?

Contemporary media pioneers are exploring the possibilities of video projection on alternative surfaces — primarily architecture — but also on sculpture, vehicles, and other physical objects. This, itself, is not a new art form, but the creation of visual media to harmonize with the physical shapes of a projected surface has been a recent development, originating in Europe in the past 10 years. The advances of computer processing power, as well as video projection systems, have made this art form, called “mapping”, possible.

The presentation surface can now play a role in the artistic narrative of a media piece. In most cases, this means that the architectural narrative of form and space can be considered during the creative process. What ‘fits’ the aesthetic, the shape, and the story?

The content being presented is not in a traditional start-to-finish linear narrative. Rather, individual pieces have been made to match the building’s shapes, and graphical imagery has been broken into themes. Using a real-time media playback system, different parts of the building’s projected imagery can be changed, creating a non-linear and manipulable narrative.
I was fortunate enough to collaborate with music producers James Teej, and Marc Nyiti to create a soundtrack for the installation. The sounds are translated by video filters, in real-time, to adjust the video output, creating a synesthetic effect.

But what does it all mean?
I’ve got a large presentation surface for use as an artist with no corporate limitations. In addition to the visual delights and intrigues that most people come to see, is there a message I want to convey as an artist? Absolutely. Globally, we can see the problems that result when we fail to communicate or fail to listen, but we can also see evidence of the unbounded possibilities resulting from understanding and mutual respect. I want to send this message, but only if the audience wants to see it.

My intention isn’t to hijack the show, but instead to have the audience embrace the experience, thereby ‘adjusting their vision’ and seeing the graphic imagery of possibility, hope, fear, truth, and freedom.

I asked Digital Design Senior Instructor Casey Yee, who is an accomplished interface developer, if he was interested in building an interactive aspect to this piece. He agreed, and went on to develop an audience-controlled adjustable tuner. It can unlock some emotionally charged and inspirational content when used by an interactive viewer.

Illuminate Yaletown is still in its infancy, but is in good standing to become one of Canada’s premier light installation expos. That’s why it’s so incredibly thrilling to have been able to be a part of this event. I would like to thank James Teej, Marc Nyiti, Casey Yee, Josef Chung, Mac Station, and the Yaletown Business Improvement Association for all their help and efforts.

There were some great projections onto buildings throughout Yaletown, and it’s clear that there are some talented artists in Vancouver working in the field.

Let’s hope we get to see a lot more projection mapping in Vancouver.

Original Post on the VFS website

This piece was originally presented on two screens as a one day installation. The lower screen was a television, and the upper imagery was projected onto the wall behind, much like is conveyed in the video. The original installation was never recorded.

The video shown below is a different look at creating a slideshow, with inspiration from Michal, the missing partner of the Blacklist VJ duo.

Typefaces used:
Broadway, from 1927, designed by Morris Fuller Benton, now commonly used to evoke the 1920s-30s.
Futura, from 1927, designed by Paul Renner.

Verner Panton was a furniture and textiles designer to put it very briefly. His lifetime of great works include the Tulip Chair, the S Chair (A breakthrough in plastics) and Visiona II (a cave-like hybrid between room and furniture). In addition to furniture, Panton produced some stunning textile designs. I investigated some of the circular patterns and came up with the following design:

The original inspiring work is quite stunning: Many of Panton’s designs preceeded the op-art trends of the mid-late 1960s by over a decade.

Panton’s use of colour and form in his textile work is a pinnacle of design in my opinion.  Not quite fully psychedelic, just enough ‘op’ art, and containing sufficient visual stimulation to delight the mind.