Projection-Mapped Exhibit Includes Feature Wall That Generates Words From Water Vapor (I Think …)

March 18, 2024 by Dave Haynes

Grand-scale immersive art exhibitions using projection have grown somewhat commonplace in the last five years or so, both as touring shows and permanent venues with rotating shows.

Here’s one staged last year in Sydney, Australia that’s a little different in a couple of ways.

The Atmospheric Memory installation at the Powerhouse Museum was an exhibition mixed that used AI, robotics and 3D-printing, and illuminated a cavernous space with visual driven by 23 20,000 lumen Epson projectors.

The most interesting difference is a feature wall that does something with water vapor (I think) to generate words. I’ve seen visuals projected on fog, but not this.

The other more technical thing is that most of the projection-mapping exhibitions I have seen in person, or more so on video, seem to fix the projectors up above the target surfaces, shooting the visuals down. This one does that, too, but also has towers in the middle that hold projectors and, I assume, blend the outputs with the ones up high to create visuals that tall.

The exhibit ran from August to November last year, and was part of the Sydney Science Festival.

Warning, Artspeak ahead …

Inspired by computing pioneer Charles Babbage’s proposal that the air is a ‘vast library’ storing every word ever spoken, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s breathtaking immersive art environment invites audiences to a multisensory experience at the intersection of art and science. Control 18 interactive artworks and surround yourself with light, sound and colossal projections as you walk through the chambers of Atmospheric Memory.

If we could ‘rewind’ air molecules to recreate all voices of the past, whose voice would you want to hear?