Immersive Surfaces
September 23rd - 25th, 2011
DUMBO, Brooklyn
The Triangle at Pearl and Front St.
Jay and Water St.
Front and Adams St.
Immersive Surfaces/Dumbo Arts Festival Reception:
Saturday, September 24th; 8pm - Midnight
Lead Curator: Leo Kuelbs
“Immersive Surfaces” is a publicly presented video projection installation onto the Manhattan Bridge in Brooklyn during the Dumbo Arts Festival from September 23 – 25, 2011. The multi-part video projection, created by nearly 20 international artists and curators, will cover over 30,000 sq. feet of the Manhattan Bridge Anchorage, Archway and the surrounding cityscape, through the use of cutting-edge video mapping technology.
Technical innovation has continually affected the arts, driving the ultimate development of large-scale participation. “Immersive Surfaces” will use the idea of “the crowd”, i.e. the connection between individuals and the greater group, as a main topic, while also examining notions of projected depth and the meaning of surface. Find more information at: http://immersivesurfaces.com.
By displaying multiple types of projections, “Immersive Surfaces” demonstrates how video art can achieve different goals depending on the scope and scale of its display. The video projection will showcase 3 parts. The first part works with more traditional video art and presentation techniques, slowly progressing to utilize the entire anchorage and archway. This will be achieved by contributions from over a dozen artists from Europe, Asia, Canada and the U.S. The individual pieces have been created either recently or specifically for “Immersive Surfaces” and will adorn the enormous wall space in small units like a virtual gallery. The various sites will be connected by a background that contextualizes the entire canvas: an “Op Art” surface, which becomes animated in the second part of the installation, until it fairly bursts into the “As Above, So Below,” the third section of “Immersive Surfaces.”
By connecting the interior Archway space with the Manhattan Bridge’s massive Anchorage, “As Above, So Below,” works as one of the largest single projection canvases ever presented. Various aspects of human creativity constitute a universe in which various figures exist, explore, and interact with each other. The projection reflects the reorganization of communities into both, individuals and crowds. The philosophical question behind addresses an experience that reflects our daily conduct: What is it that makes us connect?
The project is at the center of the Dumbo Arts Festival and has been organized by video curator Leo Kuelbs in conjunction with a team of artists and SenovvA Inc., a leader in cutting-edge projection technology in the U.S. The large-scale, third element “As Above, So Below,” was created by Simon Anaya, Farkas Fülöp, Richard Jochum, John Moreno, John Ensor Parker, and Ryan Uzilevsky. Multimedia design firms Light Harvest Studio, Anaya Visual FX and Resident Creative Studio assisted in content production.
The project will be accompanied by a mobile augmented reality component created by Elysium Media. A QR code will be posted around the site, and in the guides, with instructions to download the Layar app to viewer’s smartphones. Throughout the festival people will be encouraged to tweet images with the hashtag: #dumboarts. Tweeted images will float through the atmosphere and around the installation, as self-referential surfaces of their own.
A free panel discussion titled, "The Content Development Constellation," will be held on Saturday, September 24th 6:00-7:30 p.m. at 111 Front Street, Suite 216. Artists, production experts, and others from the various disciplines necessary to develop and present mapped projections discuss their positions in the “constellation” of influences that ultimately shape the content as it moves from conceptualization to presentation. Followed by a tour of the sites.
More information about the project can be found at http://immersivesurfaces.com.
Sponsored by:
SenovVa
Leo Kuelbs Collection
Light Harvest Studio
Resident Creative Studio
Anaya Visual FX
Elysium Media
NYC DOT
Dumbo Arts Festival
Featuring "As Above, So Below," a new art and media collaboration covering 25,000+ continuous sq. ft of the Manhattan Bridge Archway and Anchorage by:
Simon Anaya
Farkas Fülöp
Richard Jochum
Johnny Moreno
John Ensor Parker
Ryan Uzilevsky
Video Art by:
Devon Elise Atkins
Seline Baumgartner
Jubal Brown
Thomas Draschan
Eike
Tomas Eller
Walter Eul
Noah Klersfeld
Thomas Lüer
Adam Nankervis
Samuel Schaab
Vadim Schaeffler
Christine Schulz
Elisabeth Smolarz
Sara Sun
Eszter Szabó
Joao Vasco Paiva
Sarah Walko and Malado Baldwin
Amelie Zadeh
Photo Credit:
Immersive Surfaces at the Dumbo Arts Festival, 2011
Video by FirmaFormat