Hello Class,
My name is Nathan Dolorfino, and I am a fourth year History major without a specific concentration. I am taking Projection Design because I have a deep interest in digital arts and media, and in spite of the major I hope to be designing video games one day. Now that I have briefly introduced myself, Professor Pagano asked us to blog about this little thing below.
That “thing”, as most of you probably know by now, was called the “Magic Lantern”. The Magic Lantern was an early image projector made in the 17th century. It used a light source, a slide with a printed image, and a concave mirror to focus the light to produce an enlarge projection of the image on the slide. While simple by today’s standards of digital projection the same principle is still found in classrooms throughout the United States, i.e. overhead projectors. Since that point we have evolved image projections into fully animated images, provide a depth of field to the audience, and wow them with spectacles of three dimensional images projected in space before them. Nevertheless, it is humbling to know that all our projection media today came from something as simple as casting shadows on a wall at a campfire.
Here’s a video talking about the
MosAika Sound and Light Show at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, CA. This is just an example of Projection Design and how far we have come.
Another Example is the
Vocaloid concerts in Japan.
Regarding the paper we read as a class, "The Emergence of Video Projection", I found it to be an excellent introduction to the idea of Projection Design and its relationship to art. The author attempts to point out the artistic merits of video projection by explaining its uniqueness as a medium. One of the explanations that really intrigued me being a history major was the authors comparison of single frame classical art forms such as paintings with video projection. The author states that classical paintings and sculpture required an understanding of the stories and myths behind them in order to gain an appreciation for the works, and that without that understanding one relied on symbols and features to try and interpret the work. Video on the other hand provides the artist control of the story and thereby the intended meaning is conveyed better to the audience. While I do enjoy paintings and sculptures, I have to agree with the author in that video does provide accessibility to audiences beyond its time in the way it is able to convey an intended narrative. Paintings and sculptures on the other hand can have relative meanings to the audience if the work is not fully framed in its period very well. This article has really shown me how video projection is in itself a true art form.
While reading this article, all of you have probably come across the names of different artist of this medium cited by the author. One of my favorite of the bunch was Bill Viola. Though I could not find the exact works cited in the article by Bill Viola online, I came across a few nonetheless. I particularly liked his works called
"The Reflecting Pool". It uses simple effects by today's standards, but it still interest me how he was able to tell a narrative through the focal point of the video, which was a pool of water.
Well, that all I have to say for now. See you all in class.
-Nathan D
It's funny how video projection started centuries ago with the Magic Lantern, and how it was basically used to troll people. The wikipedia article even states that Johann Georg Schröpfer tricked people by depicting spirits of revolutionary figures with the magic lantern mounted on a trolley. Maybe this is where the term, "trolling," comes from. Anyhow, it's just amazing how they came up with this device back in the 17th century and how it has progressed since then. Here is a picture:
