- In what was the largest ever visual and lighting display witnessed by an audience of eight million at the fourth annual Guangzhou International Light Festival, French multimedia artists Danny Rose provided their “Play Me!” interactive and 3D architectural projection mapping experience.
"Play Me!" Projected on a Cantonese Qilong building.
“Play Me!” transformed the façade of a traditional style Cantonese Qilong building constructed for the Festival and centred on a kilometre long esplanade in the Flower City, the largest public space in Guangzhou, in Guangdong province, South China. The event ran every evening from Nov. 15 to Nov. 30, 2014.
This was the first year that Danny Rose has presented their artwork at the Guangzhou International Light Festival. Danny Rose specializes in interactive multimedia and architectural projection mapping content and services to light festivals.
“The first day of the event welcomed over a million visitors. The entire public space in front of Play Me!was packed out by excited audiences,” said Sergio Carrubba, director and designer of Danny Rose, the design team for this project.
“A festival highlight, ‘Play Me!’ from Danny Rose incorporated local Canton themed visual and interactive elements through a series of massive ‘musical sculptures’,” said Sergio Carrubba.
“Each ‘sculpture’ represented a family of musical instruments, which the audience ‘plays’ in real-time just using hands and body. The audience was able to change color, light shape and sound in front of festival-goers.”
Ultra high-resolution projectors were used to project content onto the custom-built façade of a traditional Qilong building.
“Play Me!” was made possible using powerful 3D real-time software and rendering engine that manages interactivity and high-quality interactive graphics.
A Microsoft Kinect motion capture system intercepted the body's movements. Danny Rose custom created software that allowed for the audience to interact with “Play Me!” by using a combination of hand and body movements.
This event was themed ‘Crossover + Canton’ that took visitors on a journey through traditional to modern themes.
An aerial view of the Guangzhou Light Festival.
The event is the largest light festival in China and is organized by Ruifeng Culture and Communication Company and presented by The People’s Government of Guangzhou Municipality.
Wang Ruixiang, Festival Director said: “We were delighted to welcome Danny Rose as a guest artist. ‘Play Me!’ masters a simple and interactive urban interpretation of Guangzhou and the charm of Guangfu culture enabling local people to interact with the art. It has proved to be extremely popular.”
Synonymous with Cantonese culture, the projection surface for “Play Me!” was constructed for the Festival and painted white to become a perfect video projection surface.
It is based around a Guangzhou Qilou or arcade style building. These narrow buildings are traditionally narrow and three or four storied. A protruding structure or arcade has a balcony with intricately carved ceilings that usually faces a street.
