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Issues of The Laserist:
Summer 2000
Show News:
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Lasers
Shine in "Postvideo" Era at
Nam June Paik's Guggenheim Show
By
David Lytle
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Laser displays stepped
to the forefront of modern art when internationally-know artist
Nam June Paik was recently commissioned to create two site- specific
laser installations for the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
The retrospective exhibit, The Worlds of Nam June Paik, transforms
the rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum into an electronic visual
space, complete with 100 video monitors on the routunda floor,
large-screen video projections on the ramps of the rotunda, and
laser projections that travel from floor-to-ceiling. Paik is
best known as the father of video art, and he has taken a subversive
approach to television since the 1960s. |
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Lasers
graphics grace the routunda of the Gugenheim. Photo: David Heald. |
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He created a “TV
bra” for cellist Charlotee Moorman, distorted commercials
into warped geometric shapes and made high-tech sculptures from
vintage television components. The two laser pieces commissioned
by the Bohen Foundation for the Guggenheim stand apart from the
video works. The museum goes so far as to suggest that Paik’s
laser displays symbolize a new “postvideo” era of pure
energy and light. |
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A
screen is added to boost visibility; ladder of
laser light shown at right. Photo: AJ Seabeck. |
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In Sweet and Sublime,
a piece created by Paik in collaboration with Norman Ballard,
a laser on the main floor projects a series of rapidly changing
shapes onto the routunda’s oculus. The moving geometric
patterns are designed to echo the innovative architecture of
the museum, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. In the
second piece, Jacob’s Ladder, laser beams reflect
off a series of bounce mirrors to create a zigzag pattern through
a seven-story waterfall that cascades from the top of the museum.
Sweet and Sublime uses two scanner pairs, Lasergraph DSP
control software, and a Spectra Physics 171 white-light laser
to project the graphic images onto a screen that hangs below
the oculus. |
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Laser
beams are highlighted
by falling water as they reflect
off suspended mirrors.
Photo: AJ Seabeck. |
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The graphics originally
projected onto the glass windows of the oculus as seen in the
top photo, but a screen was added to enhance visibility, as seen
in the second photograph. The central feature of Jacob’s
Ladder is a group of four parallel cables that stretch from the
floor to the ceiling of the museum, with bounce mirrors positioned
along the cables to reflect a YAG laser beam as it crisscrosses
the falling water.
Paik’s interest
in lasers dates to the 1980s, when he explored laser projected
video images in collaboration with German laser artist Horst
Baumam. |
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Three
Elements: lasers, smoke and mirriors creat infinitie traingles.
Photo: Jon Huffman |
In Paik’s Guggenheim
pieces (on display Feb. 10-April 26), the laser beam itself is
the “sole source of a postvideo image and experience,”
said the museum. “In Paik’s hands, laser is not simply
a means for surface display or a carrier of moving images developed
for another medium. Rather it functions as its own medium, in
combination with other materials and articulated through the
environment in which it is projected.”
In the museum’s
High Gallery, visitors can see three Paik laser sculptures that
were completed in 1997. The pieces, titled Three Elements, features
laser projections in enclosed wood structures. Each structure
has a two-way mirror that allows viewers to peer inside and view
a network of shifting laser beams. The three pieces, also done
in collaboration with Norman Ballard, each reflect a basic geometric
shape: square, circle, triangle. Motorized prisms animate the
beams within the enclosure, with beams reflecting off multiple
mirrors.
To enhance visibility, Ballard developed a closed-loop atmospheric
particle system, said AJ Seabeck, who assisted with the installations
as a laser technician. Jeff Cone, another laser artist, assited
with the Lasergraph DSP setup and programming for Sweet and
Sublime. Seabeck said the Guggenheim would not allow a conventional
fog system to be used for fear of damaging other artworks in
the building.
Each Three Element
piece incorporates its own laser, with the circle and square
compositions using a white-light laser and the triangle piece
an argon laser. The size of each enclosure is the same: 128 x
148 x 48 inches (325 x 375 x 122 cm).
In reviewing the exhibit
for the New York Times, art critic Grace Glueck described Three
Elements as “a trio of ‘laser sculptures’ in which
laser beams move and cross one another with a kind of abstract
choreography in infinite space. The eye-boggling spectacle would
give an old-line easel painter like, say, Kandinsky, a 360-degree
turn.”
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Lights,
Camera, Lasers!
More
to Movie-Going Than What’s on the Big Screen
Multiplex Cinema Adds Life to Lobby with Laser Light
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While audiences may come
to the cinema to see larger-than-life action take place on the
silver screen, theatre operators are learning that it doesn’t
hurt to add a little spectacle to the movie house itself. In
Kirkland, Quebec, owners of the new 3,700-seat Coliseum Kirkland
movie complex made a high-energy laser display the crowning touch
of a futuristic lobby area that audiences may find as entertaining
as the movies themselves. |
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Lights,
camera, lasers:
welcome to the lobby of tomorrow. |
The unusual architecture
of the circular lobby area is highlighted by an array of neon
lights, intelligent theatrical lights, overhead trusses, and
a 24-foot diameter metal sphere suspended high above the floor.
Inside the sphere, a special laser projector constructed by Production
Design International of Markham, Ontario, produces a fast-moving
array of aerial beams that fan out over the heads of moviegoers.
The laser beams are
the climactic element of a sound and light show that takes place
every fifteen minutes. The lasers, along with moving intelligent
lights and atmospheric hazers, are synchronized to a music soundtrack
designed to build excitement as the audience gets ready to enter
one of 12 theatres arrayed in a huge circle around the lobby
hub.
Famous Players, which
owns the new $30 million complex, came to PDI with a detailed
plan for what they wanted in laser lighting, but making their
plan become reality was a major challenge, said Howard Ungerleider,
PDI’s director. “They wanted 360-degrees of beam, with
everything originating from inside the sphere,” he said.
The resulting design uses a cable-supported platform to suspend
the projector platform in midair inside the open framework of
the sphere (which is itself suspended in midair above the lobby
floor).
The projector platform
hosts two lasers and all associated optics. There are 14 pick-off
positions, each split an additional 4 times, to produce a total
of 56 beams coming from the projector. For more coverage, 56
perimeter mirrors are positioned around the lobby to create a
spider web of return beams. Although PDI could have used a remotely
located laser to feed light to the projector via a fiberoptic
cable, Ungerleider rejected that idea. To keep the installation
as simple as possible, he wanted to avoid the high electrical
and cooling demands that would have come with a fiber-fed laser
setup. The projector at the theatre incorporates a pair of diode-pumped
solid-state YAG lasers manufactured by Laser Power, each producing
about 3 watts of YAG-green laser light. The lasers run off standard
120 volt current and are air-cooled.
The laser projector
is operated by a DMX control system, allowing theatre personnel
to easily control fades and chase patterns from the DMX lighting
control board used for the lobby’s theatrical lights and
intelligent lights. “The theatre did not want a static look,
and the setup allows them to create chase sequences using the
DMX board,” said Ungerleider. A variety of different sequences
can be preprogrammed and played back on cue using DMX commands.
In addition to the
theaters and the lobby light show, the facility also houses a
2,000 sq. foot gaming center with high-end simulations and interactive
games. John Bailey, president of Famous Players, called the Coliseum
an “extraordinary entertainment destination” and predicted
its round design would soon become a favorite with Quebec movie-goers.
PDI: (+1) 905-479-4070,
www.laserlightdesign.com
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Mardi
Gras in New Orleans:
Laser Lights and More at State Palace Theater
Three
Nights of Lights, Lasers and Music
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Laser Spectacles, Inc.
recently finished a round of three parties in New Orleans to
help celebrate Mardi Gras. The shows were performed in the State
Palace Theater, a huge classical-style movie theater on Canal
Street just outside the city’s famous French Quarter. “I
love this place!” exclaimed Tim Walsh, president of Laser
Spectacles. “This is one of the shows that we do in which
we stay set up in the same space and keep improving the show
over a period of days.” |
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MC303
Beams, a 1998 laser
piece by Tim Walsh. |
The whole sequence of the parties extends over a week, and the
parties are called ZooLuv on the first Saturday, Zoolu on the
second Saturday, and finally Zoolu Allstars on the Monday before
Fat Tuesday.
Walsh explained that these parties used to be called raves, but
there is no word to describe them now besides the all-encompassing
word “party.”
“Every night outside the theater there are big parades,
and the legendary Bourbon Street is just a few blacks away. We
work for the FreeBass Society, which throws these parties and
they bring in world-famous talent to provide music.” Laser
Spectacles used two 6-watt white light lasers for their production,
split among eight scan heads scattered over the theater. Two
graphic projection screens were also installed.
“The State Palace
Theater has two balconies; I was able to make the laser show
multilayered so that every seat was swimming in laser beams.
I also used the domed top of the theater for lumia and grating
projections.” Chip Bullock and Eyegasm programmed the intelligent
lighting (there were Cyberlights, emulators, strobes, etc.),
and OVD from Chicago did video projections on three huge screens.
“This is by far the best light show that I have ever experienced
in the USA,” said Walsh. “I can’t wait to get
back there again.”
Walsh has been working
on the annual event for the last three years with the same group
of artists brought together by the FreeBass Society. “It
feels like being on a team now. By the time we get to the last
party, Zoolu All-Stars, the production is operating at peak perfection.”
Walsh has a special
invitation to all laserists to come out next year and experience
Mardi Gras and the Zoolu parties. “If anyone out there is
interested, contact me through my web site—I am thinking
of reserving a block of rooms for next year. It would be great
to have friends in who can appreciate this kind of show.”
Laser Spectacles: (+1)
512-392-4600;
www.laserspectacles.com
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Laser Lumia Set the Mood
Restaurant
Seeks Romantic Atmosphere; Lasers Fill the Bill
By David Lytle
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When most audiences think
of laser light displays, they think of sizzling shafts of light
arcing through the air, or of kinetic laser graphic dancing across
a screen. A major Nevada casino, however, recently turned to
lasers to create a mood far different from the high-energy look
most laser installations are known for. "These clients never
wanted to see the typical line art look that most laser animation
generates,” said Scott Anderson, creative director for Laser
Images of Van Nuys, California. “Instead, they were excited
by our extensive use of laser optical effects, and imagined a
very tasteful multimedia experience … pure visual music.”
The resulting installation at the Romanza restaurant in Reno’s
Pepermill Hotel Casino might be described as Rome meets the planetarium. |
Classical
statues and laser lumia combine
to set the mood for this Reno casino. |
An extravagant
Roman court-style restaurant, dominated by a 60-foot dome-like
ceiling, is the setting for a multimedia show designed to harmonize
with the romantic musical recordings of Italian tenor Andrea
Bocelli. The laser imagery, which is projected onto the ceiling
by a full-color 3-watt Coherent laser, consists almost entirely
of lumia effects. Unlike vector-based line-art graphics, lumia
are soft, gauze-like abstracts that can be made to move in almost
hypnotic patterns.
While Laser Image’s
Laserium planetarium shows make extensive use of lumia, the effect
is not widely seen outside of the planetarium market. “We
are always amazed at how well lumia are received when we do demonstrations
for clients,” said Laser Images President Ivan Dryer. “The
ethereal beauty of the effect blows people away.”
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For the Romanza installation,
the company used a RGB laser projector equipped with a single
scan head and multiple optical “stations” where lumia
pattern generators can be inserted in the beam path. Although
the scanners occasionally project a moving starfield pattern
and a stray meteor or two, Dryer said the vast majority of images
are lumia patterns. |
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Shimmering
lumia move slowly across
the screen, entrancing audiences . |
The projector
can generate 18 different abstract lumia, and can project multiple
lumia effects simultaneously with the moving starfield. Lumia
are created by focusing the laser through a “scan glass,”
which is an acrylic resin cast created by the company to reproduce
a particular lumia effect originally made with other materials.
The laser, lighting
sound, show control and other specialists involved in the project
were first brought together by architect Peter Wilday. Laser
Images worked closely with show planner Gil Levine to create
eight different multimedia shows, each carefully choreographed
to Bocelli’s popular contemporary music. In addition to
lasers, the shows include moving statutes, intelligent theatrical
lighting, fog effects and pyrotechnics (flaming torches) .
Each four-to-five minute
module can be repeated in a loop, or restaurant operators can
use a DMX interface to playback a particular show in response
to audience requests (particularly those from high-rolling gamblers
who patronize the hotel’s casino).
To add audience involvement,
speakers play music directly to individual booths, and guests
can control the sound levels for louder or quieter performances.
Guests also find souvenir 3D glasses on their tables, which take
advantage of ChromaDepth 3D technology that seems to separate
laser colors in midair.
Laser Images: (+1) 818-997-7952;
www.laserium.com
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