Intro to Screen Projection
Life style idealism in modern urbanization is a reflection as to what was envisioned and in fact practiced a few decades ago. Taking the notions and ideas of German ingenuity, The Bauhaus, founded by Walter Gropius was to develop a new unity of art and technology. It became greatly influential from the early 1920’s to late 50’s. The aesthetic of the engineer for the Bauhaus follows the motto form follows function. I believe in our modern society, a movement towards advance technology enables us to utilize a harmonious combination of style, aesthetics, form and function towards a better more efficient and comforting life style. This notion is critically fundamental to the means of communication, businesses, art and entertainment, etc… A very good example of this is in how advance screen projections are continuously falling under the influence of the Bauhaus functional techniques.
As the advent of cinema progressed, so did the projection side of it. Projecting a story on the silver screen became and to this date is still a magical experience. However, I believe with the aid of modern technology and the ever-growing minds, the time to experience that magic in another form has arrived. Today, numerous functions exist within the realm of projection. For example numerous special effects companies have invested in a new and uniquely mesmerizing way to display or portray images. How is it mesmerizing? Well a thick, long pipe that carries pressured water is hoisted in the air where it is connected to series of computer driven nozzles that are positioned parallel to the pipes which suck the water out of the pipe and in a way inject outwards the water. The computer controls the timing of the nozzles spray time, thus rendering an image as the water is sprayed out. Similar techniques are now being utilized with fire and sparks.
I have always been a fan of the verfremdungseffekt a.k.a. the alienation effect in theatre. A movement rooted by the Russian formalists and strongly utilized by Brecht in his theatrical performances. Verfremdungs literally incorporated the input and or participation of the audience members to progress the play in a very alienist way. In other words, the audience have a huge influence on the play and their experience’s was one of a different kind. I am very interested in furthering this movement and incorporating it into todays modern entertainment. For example I envision the next MTV awards show – an award show that is overtly pumped with up beat music, live crowd, lighting spectacles and of course lots and lots of energy all around. I would like to take the audiences’ experience to another level that not only they maintain their current lively experience of the show, but they would also have a very personal and interactive way to be apart of the show. Imagine the main front stage where majority of the performances are taken place. With the aid of the technology that was demonstrated on TED in class, imagine the performers have the ability to virtually move floating objects on the side screens from one screen to another to give the audience a very surround immersive experience of the show. I would align the entire theatres surrounding walls with screen panels that would be connected to the virtual xxxxxx. The dancers and or performers on stage will bring an additional dimension to the interior of the theatre that will seem like a all round integration of the theater.
Imagine in a few years later the idea of screens are then replaced with projectors and instead of being confined by using screens attached to walls, images are projected into mid air like a holograph as it being an additional dimension. This way the idea of an immersive virtual surrounding is more vivid and much more concrete – the holograph(s) are able to be recognized from any angle.
Imagine the dancers on stage are now duplicated and are represented on another stage in the theatre as holographs. Now the audiences are no longer confined in looking in one direction. They are now surrounded by numerous performances that are not the same. Because the performances are represented as a holograph, this means that the holograph can be formed into other representation of the original…in other words, the holographs can be animals, or dancing trees, or dancing cars. This gives the entire show the ability to improve on the themes.