|
Arctic Night Comes Alive
Omagica Mixes Lasers, Pyro and More
By David
Lytle
It was a love story set among
the Nordic Gods, brought to life on a stage made of ice and snow.
Seen by 4,000 people, including King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden,
The Saga of Skade was a rare outdoor laser display specifically
designed for a winter environment, where artists used lasers,
lighting and pyrotechnics to tell an ancient tale of love and
rejection.
Created by Sweden’s Omagica,
the 20-minute show was the highlight of the 2002 Swedish Ski
Championships held earlier this year in Vassaara Square, Gallivare.
The show itself was built around animated laser graphics, shafts
of laser light piercing the cold winter air and sculptures carved
from ice that were dramatically illuminated with laser beams.
“A brilliant laser performance. Fun!” the Swedish King
was quoted as saying after the show.
The stage was designed to create the illusion of a cave from
an arctic fairy tale, with six-meter long icicles, ice sculptures
and large blocks of ice framing the action. Full-color laser
graphics were projected on a 30- x 10-meter screen at the rear
of the stage. The visual story was reinforced by narration, dialogue,
music and sound effects. Adding to the impact was the extensive
use of moving theatrical lights and a finale of pyrotechnics.
Omagica’s Jan Kriland, one of Scandinavia’s leading
laser animators, said the winter environment posed special challenges
for artists and technicians. Atmospheric effects, for example,
were barely visible in the dry arctic air. “Effects needed
to be very focused, short and exact,” he said. On the other
hand, the show often used static and moving beams to strike blocks
of ice, causing the entire piece of ice to instantly light up
from within.
“This was a strong effect that made it easier for the audience
to follow the beam when it moved from the ice to the sky,”
said Kriland. Because laser effects looked especially cold and
sharp in the arctic climate, theatrical lights were used to produce
warm red and orange colors on the projection screen and ice sculptures.
A host of effect wheels and gobos were used with the moving theatrical
lights, which took more time to fine tune than the laser projections,
said Kriland.
Keeping everything show-ready in such a cold climate took some
extraordinary measures. Because of the below-freezing conditions
(-10° to -25° C), DPSS and copper-vapor lasers were used
instead of water-cooled lasers for all beam effects. Although
two mixed-gas ion lasers were used to create full-color graphics,
the water-cooled Spectra-Physics Chroma-5 units were kept inside
a heated container. Hoses delivering water to the lasers were
equipped with heating wires to keep the water from freezing.
Before the show began, crews used portable heaters and fans to
warm up the lasers used for beam effects, which were located
outside. But the warm air from the heaters caused snow to melt,
so crews had to keep alert to prevent melting water from shorting
out electronic systems. Cables strung outside soon froze into
“iron snakes,” said Kriland. Instead of attempting
to move a frozen-solid cable, a new cable stored inside a room
temperature would be brought out and used in place of the frozen
one.
The arctic setting was essential to the story, a Romeo and Juliet
fable about the invention of the ski. The legendary tale revolves
around Skade, whose father was killed by the Nordic Gods. She
demands to marry one of the Gods as compensation, and Odin grants
her wish. But Skade is unhappy with her new husband, Njord, God
of the Sea, and smashes their marriage bed to pieces. She takes
two of the broken wooden boards, puts them under her feet, and
returns to her home in the mountains. The ski is thus invented.
To create the multimedia production team for The Saga of Skade,
consisted of Erling Johansson, an internationally acclaimed artist
and filmmaker from Gallivare, Hakan Rudehill, a writer, composer
and festival producer, laser animator Jan Kriland, and Adela
Kriland, who produced the non-laser light effects and pyrotechnics.
Omagica is the result of the merging in 1999 of Diseño
Laser of Mexico City, Mexico, and Obscura Magica of Stockholm,
Sweden. Omagica is based in Stockholm with representation in
Mexico. The group’s main markets are Scandinavia and Latin
America, but it has also performed shows in, Austria, Germany,
the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica,
China and Australia.
The group’s next project, to be launched later summer this
year, will combine sound, laser, sculpture, video and other media
in landscape installations. Called AnderssonKrilandSpour, the
audiovisual landscape installations are designed to explore encounters
between high technology and traditional art forms in new settings.
Omagica: (+46) 8-590 712 02;
www.omagica.com
Top
|
An
audience of thousands gathered in frigid temperatures to celebrate
the multi-media Saga of Skade presentation.
|
|
Full-color graphics, above, demanded special steps to insure that
water-cooled lasers functioned in the below-freezing weather.
|
Ice sculpture glows like a beacon when illuminated with a single
YAG beam.
|
|
Snow surrounds the stage prior to the show's opening.
|
|
Setting up in the snow required plenty of warm clothes and hot
soup.
|
|
|