WINNER
The Dark Sky Project
by ThoughtFull, for Ngai Tahu Tourism
ThoughtFull is behind the design of The Dark Sky Project – a new visitor experience within New Zealand’s premier astronomical research centre at the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve.
The idea “To empower people to protect the night sky” inspired the attraction’s name; and the overall experience takes the form of a hosted walk-through of various spaces that each tell a different aspect of the Dark Sky story using immersive technologies and physical objects.
Zone 1, The Night Sky, for instance tells the story of how the Solar System was formed and about constellations, using animated AV projections on a 12m wall.
The current Stellar Pulsations research project, which is recording the vibrations and sounds a range of stars make, is explored in Zone 2, Sounds of the Stars, using interactive glowing orbs that guests touch to hear sounds at different intensities; and Zone 3, Pool of Reflection, details the night sky’s role in early Maori life via audio and floor projections that look like a rippling pool. Each zone is designed to facilitate the interplay of the live guide and narrator with the interactive digital pieces.
The judges said: “A brilliant project: the level of interaction with the physical space is incredible, and gives you the feeling of controlling the environment. The visuals are captivating, and engaging, as well as being informative with themes positively covering sustainability, legacy and more.”
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Empire State Building Observatory Galleries
by Squint/opera, for Empire State Realty Trust
Squint/Opera has worked on digital design elements for more than 40 unique installations within the permanent exhibition at the new Empire State Building Observatory Galleries. The installations span more than 35,000 sq ft and range from large-scale projection-mapped experiences to single-user virtual viewers.
In the Site in 1920s Gallery visitors can explore the streets of 1929 New York through viewfinders showcasing animation created using 3D models, archive photography, live-action content and a generative audioscape using original 20s New York sounds. On the 80th floor, viewfinders celebrate modern NYC’s diversity by transporting viewers to different parts of the city with stereoscopic, 360o video content and audio tracks that aim to “engulf” users. Elsewhere the Construction Gallery displays a historically accurate life-size looped video piece that surrounds the visitor across four walls and the ceiling, showcasing the building’s construction; while the Kong installation welcomes guests into a 1930s-era office inside the Empire State Building, where a life-size gorilla “clings to the side of the structure, peering in at viewers and dodging bi-planes as he climbs,” Squint/Opera explains.
Designed for “selfie moments”, guests can “climb into his hand and feel the rumble as he roars, while lights flicker overhead.”
DIGITAL INSTALLATIONS
HIGHLY COMMENDED
Variegation Index
Jason Bruges Studio, for British Land
Jason Bruges Studio created the Variegation Index interactive digital artwork for British Land. Located in the lobby of 20 Triton Street, a 10-storey office complex and event space in Regent’s Place, London, the installation attempts to “disrupt the boundary between public and private space,” according to the studio.
It uses biomimicry through 293 digital “cells” that cascade across the wall and explore the idea of plants giving feedback to their environment through photosynthesis. Inspired by special cameras used by farmers to monitor the health of their crops, an array of plants placed below the artwork is discreetly being “observed” by a custom-built camera that uses a combination of infrared and RGB light to measure chlorophyll levels within the leaves.
This information is translated into a dual-perspective real-time data visualisation in the form of an oscillating series of lights and numbers across the artwork’s cells; with the lights signifying the transfer of energy in leaves. As such, during bright daylight the display shows fast movement; which slows in grey weather. Jason Bruges Studio says it builds on previous pieces that explore “digitising natural phenomena, touching on the relationship between people, nature and themes of wellness”.
Blink: The End is in Sight
by MET Studio with Jason Bruges Studio, for Sight Savers'
MET Studio was behind the concept for Blink, a temporary photographic art exhibition supporting charity Sightsavers’ campaign to eradicate Trachoma – an infectious eye disease leading to blindness – by 2025.
Using blink-tracking technology developed by Jason Bruges Studio, the exhibition demonstrated how Trachoma progresses to eventual blindness as eyelashes gradually erode the eye’s surface, through a series of digital images by photographers including Nick Knight. Each photographer was given the brief, “what is the last thing you'd like to see before going blind?” The blink-tracking technology recorded data which then created a final artwork using Pixel Sorting to reflect gradual sight loss. “This process allows for pixels to be swapped not destroyed, meaning data from the original image is re-ordered not removed,” MET Studio explains.
Beam Pavilion
by Hoare Lea, for Wolfgang Buttress, Greanpeace and Glastonbury Festivals
In summer 2019, engineering firm Hoare Lea worked with long-time artist collaborator Wolfgang Buttress to deliver the creative technical design of digital audio and video systems for his Beam Pavilion at Glastonbury Festival – one of the very few permanent installations on Worthy Farm. Commissioned by Greenpeace, the installation used 3600 soundscapes, projection and lighting to envelop visitors within the 30m diameter woodland dome pavilion.
Beam aimed to highlight the plight of honeybees and their role in pollinating 30% of our food. The installation used accelerometers, which sense vibrations, to measure the live activity of the Cornish black bee colony on Worthy Farm. These live signals were transmitted to the sculpture where bespoke algorithmic control software converted them into data, which controlled light and audio, including internal integrated LED screens which visually expressed the beehives’ activity in real time. At night, 12 lasers created 3600 projections animating the walls with footage from the hives. A 30+ channel surround sound system broadcast a generative soundscape created and curated by musicians Tony Foster and Kevin Bales of the musical collective BE with Buttress.
The Garden of Light
by Pixel Artworks for McArthurGlen
The Garden of Light is an immersive 3600 virtual garden environment created by Pixel Artworks as part of the £90m expansion of the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet in Ashford. The piece recognises Kent's 400- year status as the Garden of England and aims to enhance the shopping destination for visitors and create an “Instagram-ready experience”.
Offering “a journey of discovery” exploring nature’s four seasons through the use of light, scent and sound, the piece features Europe’s largest living wall installation, made up of more than 120,000 leafy green plants. The centrepiece of the attraction is a tree connecting the floor to the ceiling, with light chasing up and along the 10m wide canopy. The inside of the trunk reveals an LED kaleidoscopic light show depicting a celestial scene.
The experience is free to visit, with users encouraged to donate towards building a sensory garden for the William Harvey Hospital – a campaign that has already raised £28,000.