ARTICLE QUOTES

1. http://projection-mapping.org/umbra-interactive-dance-projection/

Title: Umbra: Interactive Dance with Projection

Author: Kevin Karsch

With only a webcam to track the movement of the dancer, dynamic

and real time effects are mapped around the performer for a
haunting an surreal effect.
Craig Downes an audio/visual freelance artist, the creator.
It was made in Max/Msp (wiki, SDK), a visual programming
language that helps you build complex, interactive programs
without any prior experience writing code. Its been used to create
many projection mapping tools/experiences, including VPT.

2. http://projection-mapping.org/interview-philippe-bergeron-w-
paintscaping/

Title: Interview: Philippe Bergeron w/ PaintScaping

Author: Brett Jones

For content creation they use every tool they can get their hands
on, including: Autodesk Maya, Adobe After Effects, Adobe
Premiere Pro, Autodesk 3DS Max, NUKE The Foundry, Apple
Motion, Cinema4D, Final Cut Pro
On working with clients: The magic of mapping is in the merging of
the real and virtual. A lot of clients think a blank wall is ideal, but it
isnt. - Philippe Bergeron
The hardest part of mapping: Ensure that you are not getting
enamored by the technology. At the end of the day it is about
making people cry and laugh. It is about the wow factor. Ultimately,
content is king whether it is mapping or not. - Philippe Bergeron
3. http://projection-mapping.org/pmc-interview-series-urbanscreen-
bremen-germany/

Title: PMC Interview Series: URBANSCREEN Bremen, Germany

Author: Cornelius from ProjectileObjects

Q: What is URBANSCREEN and how did it all start?

URBANSCREEN is an artist collective and creative company based in

Bremen, Germany. Since 2005, weve been working in an interdisciplinary
team of architects, media artists, musicians, cultural scholars and
technical specialists from various fields people who came together
because they found themselves sharing ideas and visions for art projects.
Together, we develop site-specific media installations for public spaces,
including architectural projections, augmented sculptures, media faade
concepts and virtual theatre.

Q: Walk me through your creative process, from the moment the

client contacts you to the actual show.

The projects weve been working on have all developed differently

sometimes we receive an inquiry from a client for a specific building or
event, sometimes we discover a fascinating architecture ourselves and try
to find ways to get our hands on it. The most important part aside from
sourcing obviously is the moment when we get in touch with a space for
the first time. Since our work is highly site-specific, our perception and
understanding of a place is the main trigger for the creative process. We
try to experience every architecture, object or space as an individual
character, we ask ourselves: If this house could talk, what would it say?
Once we start a production, we organize our collaborative work in
alternating phases of free exploration and well-structured constriction.
Naturally, our work is always a mixture of creative and technological
challenges part of it is to invent solutions for supposedly impossible
tasks. Luckily, weve got a great network of ingeniously nerdy engineers
and technicians who support us all the way.

Q: How much does do these experiences cost?

You cant calculate one standard budget, since all productions come with
their individual requirements. But of course our projects arent cheap. The
technical setup alone can be very expensive. Moreover, we work in a
consistent collective of ten people that make their living with art this is
why we cant work without reasonable fees, even if wed sometimes love
to support small projects, like independent art festivals for example.

Q: What tools do you use?

Of course theres a great deal of software involved 3D Studio Max, After

Effects, Photoshop etc. But we also try to work with haptic elements
whenever possible. For most of our projects, we build small scale models
to gain a better preview possibility. A computer screen sometimes just
cant deliver the impression you need to have, especially when we deal
with complex architectures. One could say that our studio is a combination
of a garage, a computer room and a playground.

Q: What is the hardest part of the process?

One important and still unpleasant part of this process is to prepare

yourself to let go of beloved ideas and visions in order to crystallize the
conceptual and aesthetic essence of a piece.

Q: For outdoor events what issues have come up and how did you
solve them?

Weather, temperature and vandalism are some issues occurring in the

framework of outdoor installations. To protect the technical components,
we use customized outdoor housings with integrated climate control. This
can be an expensive item in the technical budget, but is very important
for sure.

Q. In your opinion what is the next big thing in projection

mapping, show design, creative, etc.?

Everything related to kinetics is definitely a big issue. For example,

moving head projectors hold an enormous potential for new forms of
virtual storytelling and spatial installations. We ourselves engaged in a
research project called Searchlight a few years ago.
The technologies are developing rapidly and the possibilities in this field
become more and more exciting. For object related projection mapping,
robotics seem to be the next big thing. People do crazy, technically highly
sophisticated stuff with moving sculptures or screens and motion tracking.

Q: Do you have internal R&D?

Yes, we always try to find time for research and exploration projects.
Sometimes, one of our team members comes up with an idea and invites
the others to play around with it. For example, a few years ago, we
initiated an internal contest for mappings on self-built objects. In this
process, we developed the basis for our augmented sculptures hybrid
media installations composed of two dimensions: a physical object and a
custom fit virtual guise. The research project climaxed with an exhibition
we held our studio. Today, augmented sculptures are a crucial part of our
portfolio. And it all started just for the fun of it.

Q. What was your favorite project?

There are so many great projects we realized, you just cant pick one
favorite. The most interesting ones are always those where you have to
develop whole new ways of creative thinking. For example, our permanent
installation 320 Licht in the Gasometer has been a major challenge and
therefore incredibly exciting. There was this enormous vast space and we
were confronted with the possibility to fill it with our art fantastic and a
bit scary at the same time. In the beginning, we werent even sure if the
installation would be possible at all. We ended up with a setup of 21
interconnected projectors and more than 20.000m2 projection surface. An
immersive experience, not only for the visitors, but also for us, every time
we enter the space again.

Q. Whats the craziest thing youve been asked to do for a

project?

There were a lot of weird inquiries, often related to advertising. Its a

common phenomenon that people want a video mapping because they
hope to have a huge show, a major event. Sometimes, these wishes seem
to lack a connection to the product or enterprise advertised for. These
ideas can become unintentionally funny at times. In those cases, we try to
encourage the people to rethink their campaigns. Some of the craziest
ideas have been developed by ourselves though. Some years back for
example, we made a production with leaf-cutter ants
(http://www.urbanscreen.com/insektion/). We built a small scale facade
model out of leaves and the let these little destroyers deconstruct it. A
very funny and fascinating project but there were moments where we
couldnt help but ask ourselves Oh man what are we doing here?
4. http://www.clydefitchreport.com/2015/02/projection-mapping-future-
performance-katy-perry/

Title: Projection Mapping: The Future of Performance

Author: Shane Jewell

Projection mapping will call a lot of aspects of the performing arts

of the future into question, and I believe it will turn out to be for the
best.
The first recorded example of it for large audiences was in the
1960s, at the happiest place on earth Disneyland.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z43FLFy5ho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnERBLhd5ac
Just recently, the dance world has begun to work with projection
mapping mostly contemporary companies. Here, the art form had
to evolve, so the idea of virtual projection mapping was born this
is projecting mapping that is not preprogrammed in its entirety, but
instead interacts with the movement of the dancers.
Imagine, if you will, going to see the ballet Peter Pan with
projection mapping. Imagine when they are flying to Neverland and
the entire audience can experience soaring through the clouds.
Imagine fairy dust that actually glows, and Tinkerbell as an
animated, interactive character instead of some being with a
flashlight. No longer will we worry about suspension of disbelief at
least not quite in the same way.
Slowly, though, people are starting to see that once they have the
hardware, it becomes incredibly easier to create brand new ballets
without investing in sets and costumes. The investment will now just
be in terms of digital design, which in the long run means it will be
much less expensive.

5. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chuck-gomez/dancing-with-light-eryc-
t_b_4949630.html

Title: Dancing With Light: Eryc Taylor Dance Leaps Into Projection
Technology

Author: Chuck Gomez

It follows the motion of dancers and uses data stored on a laptop to

generate arresting interactive graphics. Levine uses a tiny camera
to track the dancers bodies.
This little camera actually tells me at every moment in 3D space
where the dancers heads are, their shoulders, their hands, elbows
knees and feet, he says (Jason Levine). Using this I can extend the
 joints to create abstract graphics that are intimately linked with their
movements and positions.
Dance merged with technology has evolved inspired by dance
artists past and present according to Emily Macel in a December,
2007 article for Dance Magazine entitled idance. She refers to
dance artists such as Loie Fuller and Alwin Nikolais as well as
current choreographers Merce Cunningham and Bill T. Jones, as
legends who pioneered metaphor using lights, cameras and
computers.
Levine says the connection between the dancers and the
projections can range from subtle to intense. My mission with
combining dance with technology is that dance lead the
technology, he continues. To develop this work well need a
residency in a space where we can set up the projector, the camera
and where the dancers, the creative director and myself can work
together on developing the connection between the dancers, he
says.
My movement and choreography varies from very technical ballet
vocabulary to post-modern styles of dance but its structured
improvisation. The computer program will know the personality of
each dancer and if they do something different, the computer will
adapt to that and the graphics will change.

6. http://cdm.link/2012/10/stories-come-to-life-as-the-human-element-
meets-projection-mapping/

Title: Stories Come to Life, as the Human Element Meets Projection

Mapping

Author: Unknown

The Alchemy of Light makes projection mapping more than a

sculptural, light-painting illusion. It allows the digital motion image
to interact with the performer. And the human performer is a big
part of what makes this work.
7. http://visiophone-lab.com/wp/wp-
content/uploads/MixedRealityImmersiveDesign_PRE-PRINT.pdf

Title: Mixed Reality Immersive Design: A Study in Interactive Dance

Authors: Joo Beira, Rodrigo Carvalho and Sebastian Kox

A really interesting response from the audience interviews concerns

the ways their perception is affected by this augmented strategies
and interactions. Some viewers acknowledged that they felt
confused and visually over stimulated, not always in the best way.
Due to the nature of dance viewers expectations, audience
members primarily focused their attention on the performer(s) and
their motion. With the visual projections immersing the performers
bodies and surroundings, there is a significantly larger amount of
information to process.
The design process in immersive spaces for dance performances
should avoid this obstructions for the audiences, optimizing the
visual responses of the system according to the performers body
position, and focusing the focus length on the performer action
area
After months of work with the performers and the choreographer, it
is interesting to notice how the workflow and rehearsals changed
according to the tracking technology applied.

8. http://makezine.com/projects/projection-mapping-with-laser-cats/

Title: Projection Mapping with Laser Cats

Author: Neil Mendoza

In its simplest form, projection mapping involves creating visuals

that align with real world objects and then projecting them on to
those objects. Normally, this process is done using computer
graphics.
The other approach is to pre-render a movie to project. This might
be done with a software package such as Adobe After Effects. The
advantage of this approach is that much more computationally
intensive rendering algorithms can be used.

9. http://www.instructables.com/id/Projection-mapping/

Title: Projection mapping

Author: Pushan Panda

 There's a lot of material on the web showcasing this technique, but
how one creates this effect remains elusive at best.
Projection mapping describes the technique that uses a projector
on any surface and can turn it into a dynamic visual display.Instead
of using a boring flat white screen, it can be used to bring buildings
and objects to life, create immersive environments and to provide
exciting interactive experiences.
Choose your canvas wisely! You don't want to create something to
project upon that is unable to express what you want it to.
An easy way to get an idea of scale is to put a human being into
the scene.
We then decided the optimal placing for the projectors. This is
important, as the resolution of your final work will be affected by
this. Place the projector at a location where its throw perfectly
covers everything you want it to project on. Get as close as you
can!
I used Adobe After Effects to create most of my content.
After deciding this you now need to place a third camera in
cinema4d, this camera represents the audience's point of view. You
want that the viewer standing at this point sees a completely
unwarped image. And that is why, in cinema4d we convert this
camera into a projector.

10. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-
1395.2010.01078.x/abstract
Title: Animation: The New Performance?

Author: Teri Silvio

In this essay, I argue that animation has the same potential as a

structuring trope in the age of digital media and the rise of creative
industries that performance had in the age of broadcast media and
the rise of the service industry.