From top: a 2010 example of the mapping techniques at work, a workshop that launched the new software tool. More than a gimmick, projection mapping – calibrating visuals to various projection surfaces in 3D – has become an essential technique in live performance visuals. That means visualists will inevitably be looking for tools that help […]

With projected mapped to more than just the cinema-style plane, and now smarter integrated sensing and vision applications like Microsoft’s Kinect, all sorts of surfaces can come alive. It transforms projection from something cinematic to an interactive, dynamic part of the space. So, while this project isn’t new (both videos were released last year), it’s […]

In Lit Tree, the design team Kimchi and Chips create dances of light across a potted tree, augmenting the plant life by transforming its leaves into voxels. 3D volumetric projection create clouds of light. In time, it could even impact growth – a kind of bonsai technique with light. Given the work’s relevance both artistically […]

The crew at French-native collective 1024 Architecture are giving us plenty to write about. Working to hone their chops in mapping, generative projection, and audiovisual performance, these artists embody the Renaissance in these fields. First, they point earlier this spring to a brilliant Quartz Composer plug-in that intelligently maps sound to generative visuals, the work […]

Euphorie live at the Elektra Festival. Photo courtesy Elektra. When a brainy, abstract audiovisual act can elicit some laughs and cheers, you know something is going right. Euphorie, the live music and projection act by François Wunschel, Fernando Favier, and stage designer Pier Schneider of the collectives 1024 Architecture and EXYZT, isn’t brand new. But […]

Projection mapping is everywhere these days – corporate event fad, technical gimmick, and very often in reserved, controlled, abstract geometries. That can be lovely enough, but variety is the spice of media. And that’s why it’s nice to see the above video of real guerilla projection – it’s loud, explosive, sometimes garish and percussive. It’s […]

Live visuals for music continue to mature – not because of any new technology so much as because of improving technique, more refined sensibilities, and closer collaboration between music and visuals. We’ve talked a lot about projection mapping. What’s encouraging is that the use of mapping, apart from being mere gimmick, is becoming a means […]

HC Gilje’s “conversations with spaces” research and work is an effort to blur the line between digital imagery and the surfaces on which it’s projected. But rather than just make this a solo endeavor, HC shares his Max/MSP-Jitter-based tools for Mac and Windows with the larger community, free. Using the model of sources, layers, mixers, […]

Syphon VDMX 5 Beta 8 integration Demo from vade on Vimeo. Once upon a time, we imagined a future in which computer applications shared content, media, and data effortlessly, where different tools all coexisted. The reality we got was, in almost every category, far more monolithic. By exploiting a little-known feature of the Mac’s graphics […]

Rapid Projection Mapping System from Kyle McLean on Vimeo. Kyle McLean is quick. He’s apparently quick at connecting together visual wonders in the multimedia patching environment vvvv, and he’s now focused on an environment that allows augmented projection to be “sketched” quickly onto surfaces. That speed doesn’t mean laziness, though: it means the ability to […]