Jihee Junn discovers how art and tech are converging

No l onger i s the modern canvas confined to being fl at. Fostered by the advent of powerful projectors and more advanced methods of mapping, l arge- scale walls, sharp edged buildings and peculiarly- shaped objects have all become receptacles for today’s

In 2015, Auckland-based new media artist Joseph Michael travelled to Antarctica to capture the pristine scenery of one of the most remote corners of the world. Earlier this year, these images were finally projection mapped onto the entire exterior of Auckland’s War Memorial Museum, recreating the colossal scale of Antarctica’s icebergs in a cinematic collision of nature and architecture.

You’ve described yourself as being interested in the balance between technology and fine art. What drives your fascination between these two fields?

Technology is so rapidly changing. Every new project creates the opportunity for me to implement interesting technology in the work I’m creating. Having said that, I think it’s important to be mindful that the technology is only there to support an idea.

How did the idea for your Antarctica project come about, and was it always your intention to projection map these images?

A friend spoke to me about the remoteness of Antarctica, citing the huge changes happening in this environment, and asked how I would respond to that as an artist. Through the development phase, it became apparent that projection mapping would be the most appropriate tool to convey my idea. I wanted scale to play a major role in my representation of this environment.

What kind of technology and methods did you use to projection map the images?

We had to anticipate how the imagery we captured might be used when we came to the projection stage. The photographic maps of the icebergs are kind of like a huge orange peel that we peel off the iceberg and put back onto the building. This huge photographic map is combined with visual effects and video elements to create the final installation. In order to digitise the museum, a 4-billion-point scan of the building was taken and then simplified in order to get the exact dimensions of the building in a digital space. We then placed various cameras around the building in a virtual environment. The final installation is the equivalent of placing eight 4K feature films side by side, with each film in sync to the one next to it.

What was your t hi nking behind t he audio/music component of t hi s project?

I decided to take a sound recordist down to Antarctica early on in the project. But it wasn’t until we got down to Antarctica that we discovered the unique and incredible sounds each iceberg was producing. Dave Whitehead worked with the amazing sounds Mark Michel had recorded and I worked with Rhian Sheehan to create a soundtrack that would translate how it felt to be in Antarctica.

What do you think is unique about projection mapping that doesn’t exist in other forms of exhibiting art? For example, on the walls of a gallery or through a digital screen?

The major thing I think projection mapping helps convey is scale. Having said that, I really enjoy that it creates an environment that people have to experience in the real world. I felt this was the closest way I could get to transporting someone down to Antarctica to experience it for themselves.

How did the idea for the project come about?

Vaughan Brookfield: We both came up with the idea hanging out one night. We were camping in Purakanui Bay at that stage and looking at some cliffs across the water, and Tom was talking about how these new projectors he had could reach those distances. We talked about the creative idea of what we could project on there and photograph at night. So we did a few test shoots and before you knew it, we started to get the hang of how we could actually create something that was quite different.

What contributed to your decision to project onto natural surfaces rather than the more common practice of projecting onto urban objects?

I've always been a location photographer so there were a lot of beautiful places that I'd done work in, usually out in natural landscapes. With Tom, he hadn't really projected onto anything like that before, but once he got this new technology, he realised that we could project onto these kind of surfaces quite well. We were both kind of surprised at what we could get out of it.

So with my skills and Tom’s skills, we thought we'd go out to places that you wouldn't normally take a 25kg projector to see if we could create something that could amaze people a little bit and make them think. Since then, we’ve developed it much more and it’s moved in the direction of an environmental message, looking at creating content that relates to the environment around us and the effects we’re having on it. We're even planning to get a helicopter up to the Tasman Glacier to do some more environment-related projections.

What methods and technologies do you use to execute The Nameless?

Tom uses a Christie projector,

which is one of the leading brands in projection out there. It's a very powerful projector, so we can be 30 or 40 metres away from a surface and it can still project high detail images onto that surface.

I shoot on a Canon 1DX, which is top of the line in terms of low light digital photography so it works really well in dim evening light. There's a window just after the sun goes down or before the sun rises – that dawn/dusk period – where I can match the natural surrounding light with the projected light quite well and make it look all seamless. So it's all about that little window.

What are some of the challenges?

We tr y and keep it pretty simple. We generally don't spend a whole lot of time mapping the objects that we're projecting onto because we've got such a short window of time and we've got so many different images that we want to project on there. Usually, we can get a reasonably good projection without mapping out the surface.

We’re also working in extreme environments, so most of the time the challenge is just warming up the projector and making sure everything works. It’s set to be negative 20 degrees on the Tasman glacier, so it’s going to be interesting because these projectors are designed to work at certain temperatures. There are a lot of little things that could go wrong when you're out there. If something's not working, it's not like you can just pop down and get a new cord or download the software off the internet.

What do you think is unique about projection mapping that doesn’t exist in other forms of exhibiting art?

I think it gives people who want to be creative the opportunity to do things at a large scale but not have to leave a footprint. You don’t have to paint a big billboard or print out a whole lot of large format imagery – you’re just projecting light for a short period of time.

Audio Creatures is this strange, mesmerising and animated loop of colourful visuals. Where did the idea come from?

Because I go to the Opera House quite a bit to see bands and artists, I always see it as a place you go to ‘see’ audio. The way I saw it, it was transforming the building into something that's moving, like a creature, and it's producing audio. It’s kind of like a metaphor for what the building does.

Did you encounter any challenges having to deal with the building’s unique shape?

The biggest hurdle design-wise was tr ying to make it feel like it was actually the shape of the Opera House. In the years before, they hadn't really considered the Opera House shape and that was something that was really important to me. I wanted to make it feel like it was actually the Opera House transforming. I think when projections can do that, that’s when they’re most successful.

When you walk around the building, the creatures actually deform and distort because it gets a bit weird with projection mapping. But it still totally works because it’s not a shape that you recognise. If it was live action or something, it wouldn't work.

How did the sound and music component of Audio Creatures come about?

Ben Marshall, who’s the head of contemporary music at the Sydney Opera House and festival director for Vivid Live, asked me which artist I’d like to have. I said I’d like to work with Anwar Tobin who’s an extraordinary electronic artist from the UK who currently lives in San Francisco. He's considered one of the most innovative electronic artists in the world so I contacted him, sent him some initial sketches, and he was really into it. What he did was reflect and interpret the concept by making the audio that the creatures would be producing.

What do you think is unique about projection mapping that doesn’t exist in other forms of exhibiting art?

It's like moving sculpture. I think there's something really neat about that. It's not like cinema or a TV where you've got a square box that you fall into and you're transported somewhere else. You're very much still in the real world. What I liked about projecting imagery onto the Opera House was that all the boats, ferries and visitors could go past. The object was this animated thing, but it's still in the real world. I think that's really unique.

Creating something for the public domain must’ve been a refreshing change from the film work you normally do.

The main thing that was really cool was there were so many people taking photographs, which you'd never do with a screen. No one takes photos of the TV or in the cinema, even something public like an outdoor cinema. An outdoor cinema is narrative-driven. You’re there to listen and watch rather than capture. With something like this, people feel like they need to capture it themselves to become their own directors.