FEATURES: IMMERSIVE AUDIO
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The iconic Great Wave off Kanawaga woodblock print inspired content for Ukiyo-e Visions
An immersive art exhibition has opened on the Shanghai Bund, created by teams in the Chinese city as well as in Paris, Rome and Switzerland during lockdown. Caroline Moss has a virtual tour of the spectacle THE TREND FOR ALL THINGS IMMERSIVE HAS SEEN the emergence of technology-driven digital art exhibitions that surround visitors with evolving images accompanied by musical soundscapes. Recent examples have been L’Atelier des Lumières in Paris, Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience in locations across APAC, the US and Europe, Fête des Lumières in Lyon, France, Vivid Sydney’s annual immersive light and sound exhibition and teamLab’s installations, many of which have been in China’s main cities. Continuing in this tradition is Temple of Light presents Inside by Danny Rose Studio, which runs through until December on Shanghai’s bustling North Bund waterfront with a Meyer Sound Ultra-X20 spatialised audio design to complement the enveloping visuals, output from 11 Dataton Watchout servers via 35 Epson EB-PU100 7W 7,000-lumen, 3LCD projectors. The 40-minute display consists of two pieces. First up is the 10-minute Mutations segment: an abstract display of spinning geometric shapes, waves and angles appearing from all corners of the room, multiplying and changing shape and colour with dazzling speed, accompanied by a soundscape of digital music. This is followed by the more restful half-hour Ukiyo-e Visions, which combines massive renderings of 17th- to 19th-century Japanese woodblock art featuring the iconic Great Wave off Kanawaga print, as well as traditional Sakura (cherry blossom) trees, geishas and scenes from Kabuki theatre. A dozen giant paper fans slowly unfold with the space morphing into scenes of forests, waves and flowers as the images are animated and brought to life. The show ends with Ryuichi Sakamoto’s haunting piano piece, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, as a cloud of lanterns illuminate a night sky. The exhibition, which is staged in a 700m2 metal “box”, was created by Jean Borie de Varine, a French national living in Shanghai with a passion for both China and the art world, together with his company co-founders Robert Zheng, Peng Li, Romain Sarfati and Arthur de Villepin. The team worked in conjunction with Parisian multidisciplinary design studio Danny Rose, which specialises in immersive digital art made with
high-tech projection and sound. Meanwhile, Jacopo Carreras and his partner Emanuele De Raymondi created the accompanying soundtrack in the studio of their Rome-based company, Audit-orium, with support coming from Meyer Sound’s technical support specialist, José Gaudin, in the Swiss mountains. So far so interesting. But what makes this project truly extraordinary – stunning visuals and enveloping soundtrack aside – is that it came to fruition in less than a year, in a building constructed in a mere 10 days, with most of the creatives collaborating remotely due to pandemic restrictions; in fact, Borie de Varine, Carreras and Gaudin have yet to meet in person. While studying art business and marketing at university, Borie de Varine travelled to China, falling in love with the country and determining to bring art and culture to Chinese cities and distribute Chinese art around the world. “After university I created a company to create art and organise exhibitions that were cultural exchanges between Chinese artists exhibiting in Europe, and European artists that I exhibited in Asia,” he recounts. “I wanted to create something new in China, and I started hearing about the possibilities of digital technology. I met some people who are my partners today that helped me to create this vision and create our company, Temple of Light, and this exhibition of the same name.” Working with architects, Borie de Varine and his team took a few months to build the elements for the semi-permanent structure in a factory. Construction on the Bund took just 10 days, with 150 workers onsite day and night to create the 700m2 box, which has a ceiling height of 6m and provides 550m2 of exhibition space. Two local systems integrators installed the AV technology, working from designs from Jacopo and Danny Rose studios. The audio system consists of 28 Meyer Sound Ultra-X20 compact, self-powered, full-range speakers and 11 USW-112P self-powered subwoofers, with networking and zone control handled by three Galileo Galaxy 816 processors. Meyer’s Gaudin was part of a team that designed and developed the workflow and technology interface that was being envisioned for this project. “I was also involved in a project in
Temple of Light co-founder, Jean Borie de Varine
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