Projection experiment

Perhaps it is best to illustrate the technical arrangement of this primary research, although it is easily explained. My extension of this project into public spaces has not just been limited to the Bonington Atrium. I have already used a photography studio that was literally next door to the sound studio. The convenience of this extension was that I could just shift one of the Mac Suite computers next door, and run Isadora from there. The crux of this involved the acquisition of a HD projector, but that was resolved quickly with help from the sound studio technician, who signed an Epson EH-TW480 out for my use. It was then just a matter of hooking it all up, running Isadora and projecting it onto a plain white backdrop, and seeing how camera positions, angles and projection work in the setting.

A few images of the space and initial testing with the inbuilt camera on the Mac Suite. The realtime video rendering, as I suspected, was a lot more smooth and crisp on this computer than the MacBook Pro. I was using the same camera from the Atrium experiment, so I now know that it was hardly anything to do with the camera, just the performance of the computer connected to it.

Starting the projection up onto the backdrop.

That image is of me taking a picture of the projection, whilst the inbuilt camera was rendering my own image. Call it a three way selfie. 

Isadora itself. It's really quite simple after several youtube lessons and a few hours of experimentation. 

The bonus yielded from this undertaking was the participation of a few uni friends, whom I invited to have a look at what I was doing. I'm quite pleased to say that they certainly didn't mind jumping around and waving their arms and legs in various directions.

Even managed to get a video on my phone, because I'm professional like that!

I also had the additional idea of experimenting with reverse projection, which involved moving the backdrop forward, and extending the lamp along with the camera to address the shadow and mirror problem (the mirror problem was later addressed with the flip actor in Isadora as well). The result led to further considerations being taken about camera angle and luminosity. Here is a quick illustration as to what might be considered:

Saying that, though, I asked the participants whether they minded the fact that they cast shadows on the projection, to which all three of them replied: no. One of the rationales they gave was the immersion of the audience; it felt to them like they were a part of the artwork on display. It would be a shame to leave this projection experiment here, so I'm going to continue with it as illustrated above (or something similar) with a more translucent surface, then see how projection works in a very public setting, possibly even a separate organisation.