FEATURES: INSTALLATION
Infinity des Lumières
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The GCC’s largest digital arts venue is set to open its doors in Dubai imminently. Pro AVL MEA takes a tour of the technology powering its immersive exhibits
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The colour accuracy and vibrancy of the projected images was vital to the exhibit’s success BLENDING ONE OF THE WORLD’S OLDEST AND MOST refined pastimes with a refreshingly modern twist, a new digital art centre under construction inside Dubai Mall is the perfect addition to the city’s selection of futuristic exhibits. Digital art has become a popular attraction in recent years, providing an inclusive, immersive and one-of-a-kind cultural experience that employs the latest in technology to transform the way we perceive and understand art. A collaboration between InfinityArt and Culturespaces Digital, Infinity des Lumières will showcase a variety of contemporary and classic art across 2,700m2 of exhibition space. Bringing the exhibits to life is an impressive collection of audiovisual technology that includes 130 video projectors, 58 loudspeakers, 47 media servers and approximately 3,000 HD digital moving images. When it finally opens its doors, Infinity des Lumières will become the largest and most advanced digital arts venue in the GCC.
A total of 3,000 HD moving images are projected across the venue
The new Dubai venue is heavily inspired by Culturespaces’ existing digital galleries and echoes a similar layout and experience as the Atelier des Lumières in Paris, which opened its doors in Spring 2018. Culturespaces has been producing digital immersive exhibitions since 2012 at a number of locations that also include the Bassins de Lumières in Bordeaux and the Bunker des Lumières in South Korea. “We worked with Culturespaces on the content creation, so there are certain elements here that are identical to Paris and there are certain elements that we have changed and adapted because we think they will work better for the market here,” explains Infinity des Lumières’ head of AV, Steve Critchley, who joined the team in October 2020 and has since spearheaded the technical aspects of the project. French systems integrator Cadmos was heavily involved in the Atelier des Lumières installation, and its experience was called on once again for the Dubai project. The Atelier project set the framework in terms of technology requirements but,
with several years having passed since its completion, a number of new products and technologies have since entered the market. Construction inside the mall started in earnest in July 2020 before the second lockdown in Dubai brought everything to a halt. “There was a three-month period where construction had to stop,” recalls Critchley. “Since then, we’ve had about six more weeks of planning, changing quite a few elements around, and a further six weeks for the installation. We’re at a point now where everything is installed and tested, we’ve run the shows and found the problems with the content. There’s just little tweaks left before we open the doors in the summer.” Infinity des Lumières is divided up into two separate exhibitions: the main gallery displaying a series of Van Gogh exhibits comprising 163 digital artworks of the popular Dutch impressionist, including Dreamed Japan, an immersive exhibit that transforms as you move about the space; and a
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