- Christie was the presenting sponsor of the acclaimed Illuminus: Nuit Blanche festival in Boston, a free nighttime festival that took place on Saturday, October 25 that transformed the historic and artsy SoWa district neighborhood into a vibrant urban canvas.
Christie provided the projectors and lights for the Illuminus: Nuit Blanche art displays
Offering a unique opportunity for regional artists, designers, creative technologists, architects, performers and fabricators to showcase “their most thoughtful, innovative, and imaginative works,” Illuminus lit up Harrison Avenue with large scale projection displays. Christie’s Creative Services also spearheaded the content production for some of the experiences throughout the evening.
Committed to good corporate citizenship and supporting digital art, Christie donated a wide range of display equipment, content and artistic services to help the event come to life. Christie products included Christie MicroTiles and LCD flat panels, as well as a variety of projectors that included the Christie LX700 XGA LCD, Christie Roadster S +20K and Roadie HD +35K, and Christie Roadster HD
10K-M projectors. The company also contributed by delivering impactful visual experiences based on the work of two artists from Converse's "Blank Canvas" series - Caleb Neelon and Kenji Nakayama.
“Once the sun went down, artists could paint with light and projection,” said Jeff Grantz, Illuminus event producer and founder of Boston-based creative design firm, Materials & Methods. “Christie visual display products were the key, not only providing the display technology, but also some of the content and acting as a creative consultant, helping bring the artists’ vision into sharp focus.”
Lightweight and portable, all of the projectors were equipped with interchangeable lenses that provided the flexibility necessary for an event of this scale. Their Christie Twist feature, which manages complex arrayed projectors, allowed them to distort projected content onto buildings and surrounding spaces to ensure optimal alignment and edge-blending. The results were images and 3-D projections flung across building facades, ceilings, and any other space or object that inspired the artists to “think big.”
Grantz, who also co-produced New York’s versions of the event in the arts-driven SoHo area of Manhattan, called Christie’s Senior Director of Experience Strategy and Creative Services Denys Lavigne, Illuminus: Nuit Blanche’s “patron saint.” Lavigne’s Global Professional Services group provided the equipment, services and digital content.
“Denys is one of those creative individuals who gets both the big picture and the little details,” he said. “We were plagued with bad weather that limited onsite resources and the amount of time we had to pull the whole thing together. Among the ‘miracles’ created by his team was a stunning ‘color bar’ sculpture using 40 Christie MicroTiles. It provided a beautiful backdrop that was probably photographed with people standing in front of it about 10,000 times.”
Lavigne noted that, with the recent announcements at ShowEast with Christie’s 360 degree digital delivery capabilities the company is accomplishing something unique in its approach to multimedia network operations in the industry.
“Festivals like Illuminus are a creative blend of digital art, traditional art, and a wide array of multimedia technologies – which inspire our teams to push the boundaries in how we approach creativity in digital media,” Lavigne remarked. “This event is one of the many installations that showcased Christie’s capabilities in developing experiential installations. It proved that Christie is out there, taking on sophisticated experiences and challenges to deliver engagement for a wide range of audiences.”
