A new art exhibit at the Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ is showcasing how video can elevate traditional art in exciting new ways. Titled “New Acquisitions,” the exhibit features three paintings of simple interiors illuminated with delicate movement by Epson PowerLite W75 mini projectors. The works are the creation of Iranian sisters Bahareh and Farzaneh Safarani, who specialize in incorporating video into their paintings, creating dramatic compositions of themselves as the subjects to explore a sense of self in relation to the other.

Built in a compact form factor and modern design, the projectors blend into the museum atmosphere to avoid taking away from the Safarani Sisters' artwork. 

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“With the unique form of art that we do, it is extremely important to have the right display technology that doesn’t overpower our artistic vision or distract from the delicacy that we are trying to portray through our paintings,” said Farzaneh Safarani. “Epson’s projectors look amazing and have yet to fail us. They are versatile and deliver stunning visuals with the perfect combination of texture, color, and brightness needed to truly bring our paintings to life.”

At the “New Acquisitions” exhibit, visitors can expect to feel in touch with the video paintings and become a part of the unspoken sensations of movement, while elements of the mise-en-scène propose a preverbal narrative that takes shape while defying form. The Safarani Sisters’ creative practice includes performance art, which is seen in the video overlay components on the paintings as layers of canvas and motion set the stage for the choreography of their contemplative reflections.

“As the Safarani Sisters expand their artistic visions for more to experience, we are honored that they continue to choose Epson,” said Remi Del Mar, senior product manager, Epson America, Inc. “It’s thrilling to watch these artists at work and their ability to push projector technology far beyond everyday use and into truly awe-inspiring artwork.”

View live video of the Safarani Sisters work here.

Visitors to Arcadia Earth can’t help but feel at one with the assortment of environments represented in the art installation’s 15 rooms in Manhattan’s NoHo district, ranging from the depths of the sea to the tops of glaciers. They will also be touched by the dangers posed to each from climate change, from overfishing and plastic pollution to deforestation, as envisioned by environmental artist Valentino Vettori. 

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But what brings it home emotionally is the score and ambient sound created by Dave Hodge of Finger Music, with specific music and sound design for each of the rooms, delivered subtly but powerfully. The audio is riding on a networked backbone with components from Focusrite’s RedNet range of Dante-networked audio converters and interfaces. Four RedNet A16R 16-channel analog I/O interfaces provide 119dB of 24-bit/192-kHz dynamic range thanks to AD/DA conversion, to cover the exhibition’s 13,000 square feet over two floors. Bond Applied Technology served as installation partner, assisting with the wiring and other technical aspects of the job.

“We couldn’t have accomplished this without RedNet,” said Hodge, who serves as creative director and partner at Finger Music, as well as the sound designer and music consultant for the project. “We have two channels of full-range audio per room, played through either two or four speakers per space. There’s another 32 channels of ambient sound that plays throughout the entire installation on tiny speakers embedded in the walls, holding it together with a kind of audio backdrop. All of that is being distributed from Ableton Live, using Dante Virtual Soundcard and a total of four A16Rs, which is performing flawlessly, and which sounds fantastic.”

Arcadia Earth’s audio, developed by Finger Music, which provides custom musical solutions from its offices in London, New York and Los Angeles, is as diverse as the world it portrays: in an “underwater” space, visitors observe shrinking coral reefs, while in another a cave made from 44,000 recycled plastic bags—the number of bags used in New York state every minute—reminds them of humanity’s role in the ecosystem. “The sound for each room is very specific, but we also knew that there would be some bleed between rooms, especially because of the subwoofers,” said Hodge, who added that even the music’s key signature changes were carefully chosen to keep the transitions between rooms seamless. 

“Our install partner Bond Applied Technology and I did the mix for it in stages, as we walked through the installation controlling the Ableton Live mix on an iPad, getting it just right for each room and in between. After that, the RedNet system brings it to each space and really connects it all together. It’s a complicated installation in an unusual location and the sound has to be just right in each space. RedNet has the capacity and the quality that let us achieve that.”

Epson’s laser technology will help transform Boston’s public spaces into an activated urban canvas as the exclusive video projector provider for ILLUMINUS 2019. Consisting of artwork created with new media technologies, performances and immersive light and sound experiences, ILLUMINUS 2019 is an annual festival in downtown Boston that features projects at the intersection of art, design, technology, and science. 

During the two-night event, co-presented by the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District (BID) and LuminArtz, artists will be using Epson Pro L-Series laser projectors to create large-scale digital and video art projections and interactive installations throughout downtown on Thursday, Dec. 5 and Friday, Dec. 6 from 5 to 11 p.m. The ILLUMINUS team and guest curator David Guerra of A R E A Gallery in Boston’s SoWa neighborhood assembled more than a dozen regional and national artists and creatives working in new media, light, and sound.

“We are excited to partner with Epson for this upcoming event, as they align with our mission to support a network of artists, designers, and creative technologists who collaborate to develop new and innovative works,” said Jeff Grantz, executive director, ILLUMINUS. “Epson’s laser projectors will provide this year’s artists with advanced projection technology tools and beautiful display capabilities that will allow them to bring their creative visions to life in amazing ways throughout downtown Boston.”

Created by and for the Boston community, ILLUMINUS focuses on advancing the understanding, enjoyment, and appreciation of contemporary art and celebrating digital culture in the public space. Addressing issues that are at once social, conceptual, and formal, this year’s selection of interactive experiences, performances, new media, and video art seek to generate and intervene in social debates and spark positive change in Boston.

“We’ve watched as the art world continues to embrace and take advantage of the benefits and flexibility of projection technology to create spectacular installations, from intricate fine art pieces to large-scale projection mapping projects,” said Gavin Downey, senior product manager, Epson America, Inc. “We are excited to have the artists of ILLUMINUS 2019 incorporate our projection technology into their overall vision to showcase their work and express their creativity.”

NEICO, a company that specializes in motion graphics and live events for the entertainment industry, will present an interactive projection installation titled SPLNTR in Las Vegas from November 21-23. Created by Ed Shaw of NEICO and Brett Bolton with the support of Avolites, Group One Ltd, AG Light and Sound, X-Laser, GLP, Robe and Notch, the event will be held in CMXX Las Vegas, an event space in Downtown Las Vegas in the Arts District, and will feature an immersive audio and visual experience tied to the movement of visitors.

The event will be open to the general public but is aimed at designers who not only want to see beautiful content, but also the power of the technology behind the scenes. Entry will be free and attendees must be at least 21 years of age or older to enter.

“We were looking for an alternative to a trade show that was more appealing to our clients and designers,” said Stephen Baird-Smith, sales manager for Avolites. “At the same time, Ed had the idea for an interactive installation. We’d worked with him and NEICO before on the OMNIA and JEWEL projects, so we knew we would work well together. It was the perfect opportunity to bring it together.”

According to Shaw, the spark for SPLNTR came earlier this year when he saw a projection project named “POETIC AI” by Ouchhh in Paris and decided that having never seen anything like this in Las Vegas before, now was the time to develop his own idea for an installation. After speaking to a few people, the vision became a reality and he had the go-ahead with some help from Avolites.

SPLNTR is a totally immersive experience where the visuals and audio are completely controlled by the individual as they move through the building. Working alongside Brett Bolton, his team of artists at NEICO, Tom and Satako Wall of Blinkin Lab, Spencer Heron of Rebel Overlay and combined artists from Notch, his vision started to take shape. The visuals were inspired by Shaw’s personal taste but also with the aim to show the audience something different.

“It’s content and a style I don’t get to produce very often in the dance music industry,” Shaw said. “A lot of visuals you see nowadays are very polished, glossy, 3D environments, and I wanted to bring it back to a more artistic interpretation of my ideal visuals.”

Avolites provided the main bulk of media control for the nine HD projectors needed for the installation. This included six Q3 media servers for the individual walls, another for the custom Notch content, and two pre-production Ai servers dedicated to real-time generative graphics. X-Laser is bringing in its Skywriter HPX M-5 and M-10 lasers and all truss, with cabling and data networking provided by AG Light and Sound.

Although the team of co-sponsors have not worked together previously on the same event, their love of innovation and focus on designers drew them together. "When SBS invited us to be a part of SPLNTR, my mind began racing with the possibilities,” said X-Laser president Adam Raugh. “We began focusing on our Mercury laser control system in 2017, and Avolites was the only console manufacturer that was willing to help us develop that product in a way that best reflected what lighting designers needed and how to best leverage the modern console workflow. The Avolites team truly understands and embraces innovation in a way no other lighting control system manufacturer does and it's an honor to be a part of the movement they're leading with SPLNTR.”

“When we at Notch heard about all the great collaborators involved in this event, we immediately said, ‘Yes! This is going to be a lot of fun!’” said Sarah Cox of Notch.

Based on the simple idea that ‘all meetings matter’, Meet in Place is an innovative business solution for nomadic workers and multi-sized companies in need of offsite office space to meet. Founded in Tel-Aviv by serial entrepreneurs Yaron Kopel and Michael Dorsman in 2016, this start-up concept introduces easily accessible meeting rooms available for rent by the hour and without any memberships or long-term commitments. In 2019, Meet in Place expanded with four new complexes located in NYC and London, with Europe and the United States next in sight.

Every detail in each Meet in Place complex has been meticulously put together. From the city and street location, interior design and finishes, and technological connectivity – each meeting room has been masterfully curated by leading spatial designers to inspire maximum productivity. Driven by perfection, the founders of Meet in Place wanted to combine functionality with experience to achieve an incomparable workplace ambience. Large blank screens were a strict no-go. What they envisioned instead was a digital canvas to display true works of art.

The unique vision of Meet in Place was met through the powerful alliance of Niio, Philips Professional Display Solutions and Float Studio. Philips Q-Line UHD Android displays were installed across all complexes and framed in beautiful custom-made enclosures. Each screen was then linked to a Niio ArtConsole, which turns screens into a dedicated digital canvas, while providing seamless access to thousands of curated new media artworks from leading artists from around the world. Through these rotating collections of high-quality artworks and digital exhibitions, meeting rooms are brought to life with energy-inspiring visuals that reflect each meeting organizer’s brand story. 

Taking cues from a study conducted by The Harvard Journal of Workplace Learning shows that employees believe art promotes social interactions, elicits emotional responses, facilitates personal connection-making, generally enhances the workplace environment and fosters learning, Niio Art Console integration provides seamless access to curated catalogues of video and new art. New artwork and premium exhibitions are consistently updated to maintain cutting-edge visuals. During presentations, meeting participants can play four source signals simultaneously on the one screen.

Niio can also send software updates remotely to ensure each screen is running smoothly with the latest UI and stability features. Software upgrades are instant and can be directed to the entire fleet or selected rooms. Built-in Android opens up an exciting world of possibilities with easy access to apps, content and games.

The “XI Gallery” recently opened in New York’s Meatpacking District—a hybrid art installation and showroom for architect Bjarke Ingels’ luxury residences and a hotel under construction at “The XI” (pronounced The Eleventh) building a few blocks away. Its feature commanding most attention, from both invited guests and the street, is a curiously shaped, 33-foot-wide model of Lower Manhattan, comprised of more than 10,000 miniature 3D-printed and hand-cut buildings. Technology West Group installed and commissioned 7thSense Delta Media Servers to bring projection mapping life to “The Egg”.

Es Devlin—renowned for her stage design for theatre and artists such as Beyoncé and Kanye West, her pieces at Victoria & Albert Museum and Art Basel, an Olympics closing ceremony, and most recently, a projection mapped story at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity—is the artist behind The Egg and two other pieces in the gallery.

Devlin’s Manhattan is warped and fitted inside a quarter ovoid shape, using relative scaling tricks to force a unique perspective of the cityscape (including an unashamed emphasis on The XI building). This butts to a mirrored ceiling—a motif employed throughout the gallery—completing the appearance of an egg cross-section.

The Egg video system comprises seven Barco F80-4K9 4K DLP laser projectors, fed by two genlocked Delta Infinity media servers, via HDBaseT extenders. Intricate alignment of each projector image relative to the model is accomplished using Delta’s “3D Calibration” tool, combined critically with an accurate laser-scanned model of the built object.

“It takes a team with a lot of respect for accuracy to get a clean mapping result on an object this detailed,” said Ken Showler, experience director at 7thSense Design. “A little ‘off’ in the 3D model goes a long way. DBox and Farkas Falop have done an amazing job producing this model and content, positioning TechWest and my crew to produce an alignment we are proud of. Very little traditional 2D pixel warp was used beyond the 3D calibration stage here, and so the accuracy of 3D parallax was minimally compromised.

“Blending projectors is also a significant challenge on a model like this. For each given pixel of the 3D surface texture, there are a bunch of factors that should drive the decision of how much light is best to take from each projector, to achieve a uniformly lit result using the best quality available pixels. Some model surfaces have one projector hitting them, while others have two, three, or four. Each lens will be a different distance from each given surface, and each lens may have a different field of view, resulting in differences in brightness across the model. Each lens also has a depth of field, and an incident angle at which it hits each given surface, resulting in brighter and less smeared pixels on one surface versus the next. This decision process is managed by an emerging Autoblend tool that will become available officially with our next-generation software release. We used an early implementation of this on The Egg with great results.”

“With the detail of the client’s vision and the unique surface that we were working upon, we felt that the Delta Media Server platform was the only choice for a reliable and configurable server for this creative project,” said Brad Cornish, principal at Technology West Group. “The team at 7thSense helped deliver a solid and reliable system, while also keeping a flexible platform for the artists to work upon."

The XI Gallery is located at 25 Little West 12th Street and opened to the public on May 14.