
The world’s first interactive aurora borealis, using a projection mapped, live-rendering, body-scanning, interactive technology.
Developed for the NES Residency’s Listamiðstöð in Skagaströnd, Iceland.
The static “screensaver” video I rendered can be seen playing behind this text. We wanted the piece to be dynamic even when it wasn’t in use.
Special thanks to Jason Ramirez for the rendering support when it was too much for my elderly rendering machine…
My partner Daniel Hall and I found ourselves looking for a grand adventure. We found a month-long artist residency near the arctic circle in January, which culminated in a light festival for the local community. We went for it, coming up with a high-tech art piece that has truly never been made.
Daniel’s background is in game development engineering, and he previously worked on the Kinect development project at Microsoft. Combined with my past as an artist and product, space, and experience designer, we developed an idea that perfectly combined our passions and our backgrounds.
We created the first interactive projection mapped aurora borealis. It was 1/3 art, 1/3 engineering, and 1/3 game.