Arnaud Portier and Timothée Mironneau

Recently, I went to the Singapore Night Festival 2018. I watched on of the interactive media projects, Odyssey, by Arnaud Portier and Timothée Mironneau. I was captivated by the projection mapping at the Singapore Art Museum.

 

Odyssey at the Singapore Night Festival

Looking into Timothée Mironneau, I was interested to see what other works they had done. He is a designer from France, who is known for many large scale projects around the world, such as mapping projects at the Sharjah Light Festival, Badaitou, and Bucharest under the BK Digital Light Company. Having had experience in animation as well, he also incorporates it to his projection mapping work.

SHARJAH LIGHT FEST 2016
SHARJAH LIGHT FEST 2016
BADAITOU

 

BUCAREST

 

Arnuid Portier is also a French-born designer. He has had more than 15 years of experience in projection mapping, and has worked on other installations such as Golem, which was showcased at the Lyon Fine Art Museum.

Golem at the Lyon Museum of Fine Art

To me, I was captivated by this work because I have always been a spectator at projection mapping, because it was able to change the facade of the building that I recognise into something more imaginative and fun. I think that it is interesting how the artists are able to manipulate static and still forms, such as buildings and statues that are often times have a sense of “please do not touch” kind of feel, and bring it to life without actually having to mark on the artefacts. I also find it amazing how the projection is able to give the solid structures textures, manipulating both the structures and the audience’s perception.

 

Even though I acted as a passive audience member at the Singapore Night Festival, i felt that there was also another level of interactivity brought by the scale of the project. As the layout of the Singapore Art Museum is a ‘U’ shape, i was able to experience the projection mapping at different parts of the building, which meant that i could watch different aspects of the animation, be it at the left wing, right wing, or the centre of the building facade, and they all looked different. With this, i feel that there was a trace to the concept of Nam June Paik’s Magnet TV, as even though the animation being projected did not change, my experience changed depending on where i situated myself, kind of like i was the magnet and i was manipulating myself.