The lines between three-dimensional objects and digital creations blur as projections alter architecture, sound stages and even human figures in real time. These projection mapping projects create an interplay between real and virtual space, often combining cutting-edge technology with dance and performance art
Hakanai: Dancer in a Projected Geometric Space
A solo dancer performs within a surreal cube with projection-mapped walls for ‘Hakanai,’ a performance at BAM’s Fishman Theater. CGI and sensors create a dynamic environment based on the dancer’s movement and location within the cube. Says creator Claire Bardainne of the show, “At the beginning it’s a word. Hakanai. It’s a Japanese old word, which denotes ephemeral, transitory, fragile, and everything you cannot catch. It’s the union of a human being and her dreams. It’s a show made of haikus that try to explain that word.”
Pixel: Surreal Reactive Environments
Pixel is a dance show with eleven dancers interacting in a virtual and ‘living visual’ environment aiming to combine “energy and poetry, fiction and technical achievement, hip hop and circus.” Created by the same people responsible for ‘Hakanai,’ it also invokes a bizarrely responsive environment with surfaces that undulate beneath the dancers’ bodies.
320° Licht: Light in a Reclaimed Gas Tank
Using the cathedral-like space within the disused Gasometer Oberhausen to its fullest advantage, this interactive installation creates new worlds within the 20,000 square meters available. “This experience is based on the vastness of the Gasometer. We tried to work with that expression to make the space bigger and smaller, to deform it and to change its surface over and over while not exaggerating and overwriting the original effect of the room.”
OMOTE: Real Time Face Hacking
A designer, a makeup artist and a digital image engineer came together to create ‘OMOTE,’ an eerie project projecting hundreds of different images onto the faces of live actors in real-time, continuously re-writing their appearances.
Projection-Mapped Music Video for ‘Save Me’ by Irma
Seven digital projectors change the environment around singer Irma on a single soundstage in the video for her song ‘Save Me.’ The process required Irma and her 20 young dancers to perform choreography perfectly in sync with the videotaping content.
