VisualSKIN - Videomapping Romania

Videomapping, 3D projections and light art in Romania and Europe. Check out our videomapping through videos and images.

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Ghost Ship in Bucharest (@Spotlight Festival 2015) – Visual Skin

Remember our Ghost Ship artwork from the 2014 Amsterdam Light Festival? Sure you do! (Here's a refresher just in case.) Well, we are taking it around the world and the first stop is Bucharest! Ghost Ship will be there, in Piata Natiunile Unite between 23rd and 25th April 2015 as part of the Spotlight Festival.

About Spotlight Festival

Seeing as 2015 was declared by UNESCO the International Year of Light, the municipality of Bucharest and ARCUB are organizing the first edition of Spotlight International Festival.

For three days, Bucharest's Calea Victoriei will be lit up and temporarily transformed into a giant exhibition space. Public spaces will be peppered with artworks and light shows.

Luckily, one of those artworks is the Ghost Ship, our water-based hologram. Below you'll find a description of its new (temporary) home.

Despre Festivalul Spotlight

Ca urmare a hotărârii UNESCO, anul 2015 a fost proclamat în mod oficial Anul Internațional al Luminii, scopul acestei acțiuni fiind de a se promova o mai bună înțelegere la nivel public și politic a rolului central al luminii în cadrul lumii moderne.

Astfel, Primăria Municipiului București organizează, în perioada 23-25 aprilie, prin intermediul ARCUB – Centrul Cultural al Municipiului București, prima ediție a Festivalului Internațional al Luminii, Spotlight.

Timp de trei zile, de la Biblioteca Centrală Universitară până la Piața Națiunilor Unite, Calea Victoriei se va aprinde, transformându-se într-o expoziție-gigant, iar spațiile publice vor fi revitalizate prin intermediul instalațiilor interactive și al spectacolelor de lumini.

Despre Vasul Fantomă de VisualSKIN

Vasul Fantomă (Ghost Ship) este o hidro-hologramă de mari dimensiuni creată de arhitecții români din colectivul Visual Skin pentru Amsterdam Light Festival 2014.

În 2015 și 2016 acest vas efemer va călători în jurul lumii. Bucharest Light Festival este prima oprire.

Cum Poți Vedea Vasul Fantomă

Pe măsură te deplasezi în jurul hologramei, imaginea pe care o percepi se transformă din profilul vasului în vederea frontală. Fermecătorul efect 3D este și mai spectaculos atunci când velele corabiei se umflă în bătaia vântului.

In București, recomandăm vizionarea instalației de pe trotuarul opus al podului sau din capătul Căii Victoriei.

Te așteptăm!

Autor: Visual Skin (RO)

Pentru a fi tot timpul la curent cu proiectele noastre (și pentru a vedea unde va mai apărea Vasul Fantomă!), dă-ne un LIKE PE FACEBOOK.

Photos by Daiana Folea

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Genius Loci Weimar 2015: BigSMALL by VisualSKIN

VisualSKIN is always on the lookout for new contests and festivals to enter – we enjoy a good challenge and scouring for new ideas to fit a specific theme. The fact that our submission could actually get projected is a nice bonus, too ;) And, when it comes to festivals, Genius Loci Weimar topped our list this year as well. Here is what we propose for the 2015 edition...

About The Genius Loci Weimar Festival

Let's start off with a few things you should know about the festival: its concept is to embrace the spirit of the location through videomapping. Specifically, this means reinterpreting the architecture, history and other visible/invisible layers of meaning related to the building or the urban situation and – you guessed it – bringing them to life using the techniques of videomapping.

VisualSKIN's submission for the 2015 Genius Loci Weimar Festival

Now! Here's what we came up with:

We saw that one of the photos provided in the brief showed the shadow of Weimar's historical centre projected onto the façade of the Lange Jakob. It became immediately clear to us that, in Jakobsplan, the Genius Loci was defined by scale.

Therefore, we proposed an animation that explores scale relationships: big vs small, wide vs tall, single vs repeated and open vs limited. The 30s sample is built around a common, everyday situation: someone forgot his keys at home. If that home were a typical building from the historical centre, then retrieving the keys would be simple. If, however, that home were on the 11th floor, then the human scale would be lost.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH OUR SUBMISSION AND VOTE FOR US!

If you click through the link above and like it (and, most importantly, the idea behind it), give us a vote! If we are chosen, we will expand this line of thought throughout the full 15-minute animation. PSSST: it will include 2D and 3D shapes, sound effects, kynetic typography, dialogue and the hand-rendering style of Anita Bach!

Sounds good? Again, here’s where you can VOTE FOR US!

Thank you and see you soon on Facebook.

Online voting closes on 21.05.2015

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This is our showreel, a rundown of our best & latest work. It's the most shareable thing you need to see today ;)

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GHOST SHIP - Making Of

Authors and collaborators:

Concept and design: VisualSKIN, Romania – https://www.facebook.com/visualskin

Coordination and funding: Amsterdam Light Festival, The Netherlands - http://www.amsterdamlightfestival.com/

Water systems: Consortium Eventechnik GmbH, Austria - http://www.laser.at/

Lights: Focus Amsterdam, The Netherlands - http://www.focusamsterdam.com/en/

Containers and pontoons: Van Schie Groep, The Netherlands - http://vanschie.com/

The Ghost Ship is a tribute to all 17th Century Dutch sail ships. It is the spirit on the Amsterdam, of the Batavia and of the Flying Dutchman. But, more importantly, it is a nod to the thousands of canal ships whose names were never famous, but whose contribution to the Dutch economy and way of life was essential.

Our installation for the 2014 Amsterdam Light Festival is a water-based hologram that's meant to be viewed from a moving canal tour boat. The projected images are static, but they are animated by the wind and the entire composition morphs from bow to starboard as the point of view moves across the water.

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Ghost Ship – Visual Skin

text by Merel Bem

The Flying Dutchman is back! Anchored in front of ARCAM Amsterdam Centre for Architecture and the Scheepvaartmuseum, the 17th century ghost ship rests motionless on the surface of the water. When the wind picks up, however, the ship comes to life. Its sails fill up and the vessel begins to sway back and forth. Across the water is a colourful replica of the famous Dutch East India Company ship, The Amsterdam. The cargo ship started its maiden voyage to Batavia in 1749, but was wrecked in a storm on the English Channel and, unfortunately, fell prey to looters. (For the full story, see the Dutch children’s comic book, Angst op de ‘Amsterdam’, from the Spike and Suzy series.)

Amsterdam and the Dutch maritime history is a golden combination that results in cargoes full of stories, say the creative brains behind Ghost Ship. Visual Skin, a young, four-man strong architecture collective from Romania, specializes in the creation of additional dimensions in existing locations, by using spectacular lighting designs and projections. Their ghost ship is not only a nocturnal mirage, but also a retro-futuristic hologram. As opposed to employing the slanted, transparent mirrors and high-tech video projectors used to digitally resurrect Tupac Shakur and Michael Jackson on stage during posthumous shows, the group turns to water curtains and old-fashioned stage lights.

Visual Skin has created the illusion of a 3D object with two intersecting planar projections, much like the method used to create trees in old video games. The very green and almost creepy apparition is beamed onto vertical planes of water that are perpendicular to each other. The wind plays an important role in achieving the desired ghostly and dreamy effect – when it picks up and blows against the streams of water, the image shakes and it is almost like we are looking at a magnetic field.

The use of the water jets refers, unintentionally, to the fountain that once stood on this exact location – the members of Visual Skin were not aware of this coincidence. The mythological fountain, designed by sculptor Albert P. Termote, was constructed in 1956 in honour of the centenary of the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (KNSM), or Royal Dutch Steamship Company. The sea goddess Amphitrite rises from the water on a hippocamp (half horse, half fish), with her son Triton by her side, seen blowing on a conch shell. With the construction of ARCAM in 2003, the pair was partly hidden from view and the sculpture fell into the cracks, so to say. Eventually, mother and son were transferred to KNSM Island, where they can now be seen in all their glory.

Is it too far-fetched to consider it a righteous revenge that the glowing green ship appears as a ghostly apparition in the same spot where the aquatic gods reigned previously? As a reminder of their exile, the ship must remain docked there forever. 

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Videomapped projection - Gheorgheni, Romania

This videomapped animation for children was projected in Gheorgheni, Romania on December 5th 2014, with the occasion of Saint Nicholas' day.

The animation was projected onto the facade of the city hall in Gheorgheni and it has a special meaning for the city. Saint Nicholas is its patron, so the day is regarded as not just a regular celebration day, but also as an anniversary one for both the city and its citizens.

This was the second year in a row when we were invited to create an animation for the city of Gheorgeni. The client requested that the storyline was destined for the town's children. And boy, that was a pleasure to do!

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VisualSKIN live @ MTV Mobile

VisualSKIN live performance during the MTV Mobile party - Bucharest, Romania, November 2014

These are a few photos from our live visual performance with Alle Farben for Fork Productions and MTV Mobile Romania. CREDITS:

Stage Design: Adina Moldan and Virgiliu Guraliuc Mapping, effects and VJing: Daiana Folea and Mihai Baba VJ Clips: beeple, sgprolab, Vj Catmac Software: Millumin

Special thanks to Titus Carole, Marius Bugeac, Bob Adam and all the volunteers And a kind nod to GLOWFestival, who somehow made all of this possible.

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We've Only Just Arrived

Our entry for the 2014 GLOWFestival videomapping competition in Ostuni, Italy won 2nd prize.

There is so much we still do not know. We explain it through science and fill in the blanks with spirituality. Therefore, our submission is a celebration of mankind, based on texts from A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson and The Bible. Using custom-made 3D effects, kynetic typography and CC artwork as textures, we've put together a playful animation which respects the sacrality of the church. The soundtrack consists of audiobooks, stock sounds, a sample from Robin and the Backstabbers and a public recording of the Teleenciclopedia.

For more details, visit www.glowfestival.it

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Toyota 2014

May 2014, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

A videomapped projection demo made on a Toyota Auris Hybrid car.

See the video recording here: http://youtu.be/9HL_uosmY3Q

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Light Piano Demo

This video shows a demonstration of our upcoming Light Piano installation. Each key plays a note and lights up a stone from the wall of the historical Taylors' Bastion in Cluj-Napoca.

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Kick-Off 2014

We made this small-scale demo for our 2014 kick-off event in Cluj. The projection features serveral videos mapped onto the surface of an archtiectural model made by Dico si Tiganas.

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Gheorgheni 2013

Saint Nicholas is not just the patron of the city, but also a friend of the children. We celebrated this winter holiday with our first ever Hungarian language projection.

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Banffy 2013

The third in a series of projections on the Banffy Castle near Cluj. 

Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/VtMwQmVEcrI

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Florence 2013

We were visiting interns in an Italian architecture office. We loved their coffee. They loved our projection.

Will you be impressed as well? Click here to see: http://youtu.be/mmf48zxrMkQ

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Florence 2013

Miniatures FTW!  We scaled down and paid attention  to details when projecting on this architectural model by Studio Benaim. Textures, reflections and shadows aplenty!

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Casino Cluj 2013

A light summer projection. To go with that icy lemonade.

Collaboration with Andreea Darac.

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Rasnov 2013

We went underground. A cave is the perfect environment for an audio-visual show: it is pitch black and dead silent. So we went all out and did two synchronized projections. Check them out: http://youtu.be/A1w43F1y_70

Special thanks to Bogdan Balascau and the administration of the Valea Cetatii Cave.