Projection Mapping MC Escher
Visit the Escher museum in The Hague to immerse yourself in 3 floors of his drawings. MC Escher made his mark on the world drawing mathematics in space and impeccably recreating perspective that could only exist in a tessellated universe conjured in a 4th dimension. For an enthusaistic projection artist, discovering the medium of projection mapping, I felt simpatico.
Following the successful ArT=MiXX “Abstract” at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, the theme of the next ArT=MiXX was announced to a room of artists as “Black and White”, and I could swear, the producer of the show, gave me a smirk-full side glance. No Colorbox, no color. In comes, projection mapping[1].
We had 6 weeks to create our first projection mapped performance: meaning (1). design and build a set and (2). learn new software. All in addition to producing artwork that told a story within the constraint of the theme: Black and White.
First the set: Inspired by the now famous Amon Toben ISAM performance, we built a set of “crystal towers”, 8 in total, all of varying sizes but sharing the essential shape of two front vertical walls at 90 degrees to eachother and a top surface facing towards the projector.
Second, the software: MC Escher arrived on my computer screen continuously as I googled for black and white imagery. To understand how thrilled I was to discover new dimensions of Escher’s work as I re-mapped his impossible objects and tesselated worlds onto three dimensional crystal towers, it helps to understand how projection mapping is a completely new medium.
The possibilities are limitless. In projection mapping, at any corner, three surfaces converge to a single point, those corners suddenly become highly activated. This was different than a painting or video, this was sculpting. The artistic real estate value at the corners skyrocketed. Each polygon I stretched, I was amazed at how the converging points would change the entire piece based on a few pixel movements.
The ways to approach projection mapping are vast:
- create the same image on all surfaces
- cast one image across everything
- put the entire source image on to all the left facing surfaces as you see the grid used in the picture
Mapping a flat surface onto three surfaces, you miss the fourth space. Note in the image at right, highlighted in blue, how the roof fits onto the tower. But then, in the yellow and magenta polygons, we are closing a missing gap. Despite quarter chunks missing from his original work, I was continually in awe at how well Escher’s drawings lined up on the projected surface; drawing squares that fit new surfaces created new ways of seeing his work. I found that matching seems were easy to line up. It fit. His artwork was made for this.
Every Escher image I tried came out on the projection mapped surface as more and more intriguing.
But where does this go? How do you improve on Escher? You can’t. What if he were alive today! He would have loved projection mapping.
It began to feel like a futile effort, while revealing, endless in its pursuit. I decided the whole thing needed to come down in splintered pieces.
While on Oahu with my parents, I came up with the idea to sketch the set with pencil and project that on the crystal towers. Then at the Honolulu Contemporary Museum I found in the gift shop a puzzle of tessellated Escher lizards. “These need to be animated, crawling up the towers,” I thought. The first video I shot was of my dad, acquiescing to absurd requests to crawl on the floor while I filmed from atop a chair with my camera hitting the ceiling. Somebody had to climb the towers.
When I got home to Camp Awesome, it was immediately apparent that it would be my neighbor, Sparkles the Unicorn.
Please enjoy the extended show below, or watch a short clip in my reel.
“MC Escher vs. Sparkles the Unicorn” played at ArT=Mixx July 28th, 2012 hosted by the Maui Arts And Cultural Center.
Musical Score: Flashdrive facebook.com/pages/Flashdrive/279428652074247
Produced by: Gabriel Mott colorbox.me
Sparkles: Scott Provonsha
Design and Build of “Crystal Towers”:
Jaisy Hanlon jaisyhanlon.com
Toben Lindell
Trevor Arnhiolt
Gabriel Mott
Filming:
Josh Meredith tornadohousefilm.com
Reece Pottorff
Dana Fulton
Peter King
Art=Mixx Event Production:
Neida Bangerter
Trevor Arnholt
Toben Lindell
Rusty Conway
Gabriel Mott
Software:
Madmapper
After Effects
Cinema 4d
Sketchup
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Hardware: 40,000 lumen Christie
Macbook Pro
And for the short video of the entire event, thank you Reece Pottorff:
