Audiences usually come to Bowling Green State University’s new Wolfe Center for the
Arts and its Fine Arts Center to see what’s inside, but this Sunday, most of the
action will be taking place on the exterior walls and surfaces of the two
buildings. Students and faculty will be creating collaborative video projections
this weekend that will be exhibited to the public from 8-9:30 p.m. Sunday. The
two buildings will be "activated" inside and out using 3-D projection
mapping, a popular new strategy for transforming architectural spaces with
moving imagery customized to the space.
The exhibition will be the result of a weekend workshop, "Project
Projection," led by visiting artist Diana Reichenbach, a Los Angeles-based
multimedia artist. Reichenbach is an art director at StandardVision, a company
specializing in LED lighting design and content for large-scale media facades.
Organized by BGSU faculty members Dr. Heather Elliott-Famularo, chair of the digital
arts division in the School of Art, and Dr. Thomas Castillo, an assistant
professor of film, the collaborative workshop will bring together digital arts
and film production faculty and students in the creation of the projects.
"The artists choose a section of a building and digitally map it, then create
animated graphics to project upon it," Elliott-Famularo explained.
"They can be live action, abstract video, 2-D or 3-D animation, or a
combination."
Students enrolled in a newly designed, interdisciplinary course, "Media
Synthesis: Time, Space, Image," co-taught by Castillo and Elliott-Famularo
have for the first time the opportunity to work together, bringing their diverse
skills in filmmaking and digital arts into the classroom and the workshop.
"Project Projection" is designed to embrace a variety of approaches
including film and video, photography, animation, graphic design and motion
graphics.
"The unique architecture of the Wolfe Center for the Arts has inspired us to
explore new creative possibilities," Castillo remarked. "I am very
excited to learn about this new technique and put it into action.
"The Wolfe Center and the Fine Arts Center represent very different ‘canvases’
on which to project work," Elliott-Famularo said. The Wolfe Center has a
sleek, minimalist aesthetic with a linear quality and slanted lines. The Fine
Arts Center is more faceted, with contrasting brick and metal surfaces.
"They present different challenges," she noted.
Reichenbach will also give a public lecture at 6 p.m. Monday as part of the School of
Art’s ARTalks Series. She will discuss "Immersive Space as a Channel for
Communication" in 204 Fine Arts Center. For more information, see the
artist’s website: http://dianareichenbach.com.
(Story provided by BGSU Office of Marketing and Communications)
