Aisulu Baibolova

Dominique Moulon

History of Art, Media, and Technology

16 December 2015

Projection Mapping: The Future is Here

After officially changing my topic from 3D gun printing to projection mapping, and by

officially I mean announcing it on my blog, I have changed the topic of the research paper in my

head a couple more hundred times before making up my mind and sticking to projection mapping. I

did not want it to be too political and social, like 3D gun printing, but I also did not want it to be

solely about art. Projection mapping seemed like a perfect topic that touches up every field: art,

media, and technology. The first question that needs to be asked when talking about projection

mapping is: What is it? Projection mapping is a projection technology used to turn non flat objects

into a display surface for video projection. These objects can be anything: a simple box-shaped

object or a complex industrial landscape/building. By using certain software, an object’s walls are

virtually mapped with footage. Such technique is used by artists and advertisers worldwide in order

to add extra dimensions, optical illusions, and notions of movement onto static objects.

Before diving into the specifics, one should know a tiny bit of

history. Projection of images onto flat surfaces is fairly an old trick. The

first known instance of this invention was recorded in a drawing by

Johannes de Fontana all the way in the Middle Ages in the year of 1420.

In which, a nun holds a lantern with a small translucent window that

projects an image of a devil. Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest

painters of all times, also used such device, and later on it was known as

the magic lantern. Those early projectors were adopted by many magicians

for ghost apparitions and the ability to appear in two places at once. In the 1800s early projectors, or

in other words ‘magic lanterns’ were adopted by photographers and scholars alike.

The eighteenth century was a witness

of the invention of “Phantasmagoria”, which

was a light and shadow show. One of the

most well known physicist/stage magician's

name was Etienne-Gaspard Robert or how

most people knew him as “Robertson”, and

he held his 'seances' in an abandoned

Capuchin chapel in Paris. Those magic lanterns were useful when creating an optical illusion called

The Pepper’s Ghost. There are evidences that The Pepper’s Ghost illusion existed in the 16th

century, but it achieved popularity later in the 18th. The name of the illusion itself was given after

John Pepper who developed the idea further in the mid 1800s. The Pepper’s Ghost was widely

popular in the age of popularity of Phantasmagoria, thus ghost apparitions were a must. The

apparition one sees in an illusion is the reflection of an object or figure hidden from view. A sheet of

glass is installed between the viewer and the room or stage in which the ghost will appear. This sheet

of glass is angled so that whatever it will reflect can be hidden from the audience in a secret room.

The hidden room is an entirely black mirror-image of the stage where the actual “ghosts” are placed.

When it is time to make the ghosts appear in front of the audience, the hidden figures are lit and

their reflection appears in the glass. The figures in the mirror-image room will be arranged so that

their reflection corresponds with where they should appear on stage. A quite simple technique that

can be even recreated at home, and yet it is still widely popular even today (e.g. Disneyland).

The magic lantern was especially popular during the Victorian Era. At that time the art of

projection of both still and moving images reached the peaking height of technical excellence. Such

technical invention was used in every field possible: educational, religious, entertainment etc., just

like in the present day. Later on, oil lamps got replaced by electrical light bulbs and got its name

replaced by ‘opaque projector’. Such tool was widely used by institutions, businesses, and police

departments to share information. Today, projectors are used almost everywhere and one cannot

imagine giving a presentation to a big audience without using one, and one may conclude that the

era of overhead projectors and ‘magic lanterns’ is over, and now is the digital era. However, modern

projection holds the same idea as before: to share information in bigger scale.

Moving on to more modern days, one can notice that the boom in projection mapping has

begun not too long ago. The name itself, ‘projection mapping’ is fairly new itself. Projection

mapping has various names, such as ‘spatial augmented reality’ or ‘video mapping’. One of the first

commercial uses of projection onto non-flat surfaces took place in 1969 at the opening of the

Haunted Mansion Ride in Disneyland (and the act still exists today). The amusement park ride

featured a number of optical illusions, one of which

was a disembodied head of Madame Leota (who is

part of the Haunted Mansion franchise) and five

singing busts who are known as ‘Grim Grinning

Ghosts’.

The second most well-known instance of

projection mapping is an immersive installation by Michael Naimark, which was called

‘Displacements’. The film installation involves a rotating camera filming two performers in a room,

and afterwards the camera gets replaced by a projector. The result is immersive spatial projection.

‘Displacements’ was produced three times between the year of 1980 and 1984, and the last time was

at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 1991, Disney patented the system of digitally

painting an image onto a three dimensional object. The patents was named Apparatus and method

for projection upon a three-dimensional object. There were various patents made in those years by

various companies and individuals. For General Electric Company also had one of the earliest

patents in this field. The study of video mapping gained momentum when it was pursued in the

academic field, NSF Science and Technology

Centre for Graphics and Visualization at UNC

and the National Tele-immersion Initiative effort

at UNC in particular. In 1998, the Office of the

Future was a vision of the world where projectors

can cover any type of surface, and instead of

looking at an ordinary screen, one could work in a fully immersive environment; meaning that Skype

conversation would have life-size projections of our interlocutor. The project’s main goal is to make

real-life distance between people non-existent. “The approach aims to make distant collaborators

feel as if they were in an adjoining room, and could see each other through a large “window” in the

connecting wall”. Their later projects involved early 3D scanners, that were very much like the

modern day Kinect.

If one has ever seen the Iron Man, does not matter what part of the franchise, he or she can

remember the incredible workspace Tony Stark has. Everything is fully interactive, and he can move

all the documents/files/icons on his holographic screen with his hands, even his keyboard looks

different from the ones people are used to seeing. There is a man who was able to make that happen

in real life. John Underkoffler is a CEO of Oblong Industries Inc, and who was also the inventor of

the Minority Report’s (movie) interface. He is actually one of the pioneers in the field of projection,

video mapping, and spatial augmented reality. One of his earliest works is the I/O Lightbulb, which

was invented in the year of 1999 and it combined both light and projection to create an architectural

tool, that records and projects information simultaneously.

From then on, various artists and enthusiast began experimenting with projections and

pushing the limits further. Some came up with an idea to project faces onto marble sculptures,

others started digitally painting blank objects with various colors, and many other projects that serve

as inspiration even in present days.

When talking about projection

mapping, one cannot forget to mention one

of the most well known artists in the field,

whose name is Krzysztof Wodiczko. Born in

1943 in Warsaw, Wodiczko specialises in

video art, photography, and art theory.

Wodiczko’s art focuses on political and

social issues, and through his art alienated and depreciated social groups can express their feelings

and share their experiences. His art is deemed controversial, because it is often political; he gives

voice to those who have been withdrawn from the society by various factors, such as exile, war,

homelessness, illnesses etc. Most of his projections art pieces are usually done in public places, such

as buildings, monuments, etc., and they usually last for one night or two, and most of the time they

spark heated debates and discussions.

Since 1980, Krzysztof Wodiczko has done over 80 projections in such sites as: The Grand

Army Plaza Memorial Arch, Brooklyn, NY (1983); The South African Embassy, London (1985);

The Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. (1988); The Whitney Museum of American Art, New

York (1989), The Lenin Monument, Berlin (1990) and Arco de la Victoria, Madrid (1991), Bunker

Hill Monument, Boston (1998); A-Bomb Dome, Hiroshima (1999); El Centro Cultural, Tijuana,

Mexico (2001); facade of the National Gallery in Warsaw (2005) and the Kunstmuseum Basel,

Switzerland (2006).

In 1988 interview, Wodiczko described his work, “My work reveals the contradiction of the

environment and the events actually taking place there. It is to do with politics of space and the

ideology of architecture. City centres are political art galleries” (Illuminating Contradictions by Mark

Vallen).

Another artists that cannot go unnoticed is Tony Oursler, who is an American multimedia

and installation artist, and a pioneer in video art. Born in 1957 in Manhattan, New York, Oursler

works with various mediums, including painting, performance, installation, video, and sculpture. He

started out as a painter, trying to learn art ‘the right way’, but then in an interview with The New

York Times he said the following: “I found out there is no right way. Making art is how people sort

through chaos, through life. So I started doing performances, installations.” Tony Oursler always

tries to find a connection between two opposing worlds: the world of science, and the world of

spirituality. His performances are a throwback, in a way, to the time of magic lanterns with its ghost

apparitions, smoke machines, and dramaturgy.

One of the personal favorites is

Face to Face, which is an exploration of

the human face. The collection consists

of key works spanning the last fifteen

years. In 2003, after reading about

japanese children feeding virtual pets on

the Internet, Oursler grew increasingly

interested in the way technology can

serve as a surrogate friend. He managed

to created digital companions through software and image processing technology, which look

humorous, grotesque, and colorful. When one steps into the space, he/she could see animated,

biomorphic creatures with eyes, teeth, and mouths, that are all of different shapes and sizes. These

creatures would say things, and most of the talk belonged in the “Pillow Talk” category, because

subjects were often personal, and intimate. The caricatures try to make the viewer feel vulnerable

and embarrassed.

His museum exhibitions include Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2014); Pinchuk Art Centre,

Kiev (2013); ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark (2012); Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland,

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2005); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2001); Whitney Museum, New

York (2000) and Kunstverein Hannover, Germany (1998). Apart from exhibitions, he also

participated in prestigious group exhibitions such as Documenta VIII & IX. Oursler’s work is

included in many public collections worldwide: the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in

Washington DC, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, Museum of Modern Art in New York,

National Museum of Osaka in Japan, Tate Gallery in London, Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, and

ZMK/Centre for Art & Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Over the past decade, projection mapping has taken the world of advertising by storm. The

reason why is because it has that ‘wow-factor’ that can be delivered without it being complicated and

difficult. Projection mapping is fairly easy to execute, and yet it is guaranteed to attract a passerby's

attention. Such big companies and brands as, Nokia, Samsung, BMW, Nike, Ralph Lauren etc., have

all used projection mapping to promote their products. The ability to create a whole sequence of

scenes, and deliver it to a huge audience with just technology is simply amazing.

Entertainment industry is not missing out either. Video mapping can be used and is being

used almost everywhere: be it theatre, a TV show, or a

movie promo. Jennifer Lopez, who is an American singer

and an actress, recently popularized video mapping even

further with her gown during her American Idol

performance earlier in March of this year. The gown was a

dress with a 20-foot radius skirt attached to it. The dress was designed by Rob Zangardi and Mariel

Haenn. Lopez’s dress is just another proof of how simple yet amazing projection can be.

With all the climate change happening in the world, the UN recently introduced 17

sustainable development goals. In order to deliver

those goals, the UN’s Headquarters in New York

held a marvellous display of projection mapping

outside of its building. The projection was made a

reality by 59 Productions and Richard Curtis.

Each of the UN sustainable goals were brought to

life, one by one, with images and information

specific to that goal. The display brought people together, and informed them on how to keep our

planet clean and safe through the amazing medium of projection mapping.

Personally, ever since I have started my research on projection mapping, I became fascinated

by it. Back in 2014, I have gotten the chance to attend Kanye West’s concert that was part of his

Yeezus world tour. The stage setting was intriguing: a large pyramid was right in the middle of the

stage, and there was a white projection screen above it. I have attended a few concerts prior to that,

and for some reason I found stage design of West’s concert refreshing. It was enthralling,

contemporary, modern. My semester long research on projection mapping has opened up new

horizons for me. I have decided to dedicate my final project to projection mapping and processing

combined. I have always been interested in stage design and large scale productions, and maybe this

is the direction I will be going towards. Time and further research will show.

Works Cited

Ascher, Lois. "Krzysztof Wodiczko: Public Space: Commodity or Culture." Krzysztof Wodiczko: Public Space: Commodity or Culture. 2010. Accessed December 12, 2015. http://people.lib.ucdavis.edu/~davidm/xcpUrbanFeel/ascher.html

Jones, Brett. Projection Mapping Central. Accessed December 12, 2015. http://projection-mapping.org/.

Kimmelman, Michael. "IN THE STUDIO WITH/Tony Oursler; A Sculptor Of the Air With Video." The New York Times. April 26, 2001. Accessed December 12, 2015.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/27/arts/in-the-studio-with-tony-oursler-a-sculptor-of-the-air-with-video.html.

Oursler, Tony. "Tony Oursler | Artists | Lisson Gallery." Tony Oursler | Artists | Lisson Gallery. Accessed December 12, 2015. http://www.lissongallery.com/artists/tony-oursler

Raskar, Ramesh, Greg Welch, Matt Cutts, Adam Lake, Lev Stesin, and Henry Fuchs. "Office of the Future." SIGGRAPH 98, 1998. Accessed December 12, 2015.http://www.cs.unc.edu/~stc/