CHALLENGE:
The winner of this year’s Cothinkers Annual Prize was Polina Osipova who works with Chuvash culture. To showcase her talent, the unique space of Hoxton Gallery in London was chosen, with the aim to adapt the practice of a digital artist, who predominantly shares her art on social media, into an offline exhibition space. The goal was to create an immersive experience that would represent the artist’s work and recreate the world of Chuvash culture in a photographically appealing space. To view more Polina’s work please visit her Instagram page - https://www.instagram.com/polinatammi/
As a part of the challenge, two sections of the space had a digital element to the overall experience. Dennis Astakhov, a founding partner of Banana Bread, came up with a perfect solution of creating an intimate space to walk through.
SOLUTION:
While taking into account Polina’s use of multimedia art techniques, that are then creatively filmed or photographed for her primary gallery space, Instagram, Banana Bread wanted to convey Polina’s DIY approach to art into the exhibition experience. To do this they came up with the concept of projecting on to lose materials. As the set was designed for a tiny space, they knew they would like to use Optoma’s products, as they offer great flexibility and light output from very compact devices.
Two of Optoma’s projectors were chosen. The ZU720TST, for a rear-projection on to multiple layers of threads, and ZH406ST, which was used to project on to the main artwork.
The ZU720TST has excellent brightness and WUXGA resolution, but in particular the built-in media player functionality came in very useful, while the extensive motorized lens shift allowed for perfect projection placement in the confines of a very small space.
The ZH406ST, with its small footprint, also offered a perfect solution to a particular set of optical parameters (0,5:1 and 100%+ lens offset) that were needed to fit into the exhibition space. It proved beneficial, with the projector being installed on the ceiling to avoid the potential for shadows from visitors affecting the art piece.
Both projectors feature built-in 4-corner geometry correction, which was also handy in order to not have to re-render the content to fit the actual surface and environment.
Optoma’s sales and technical support were amazing throughout. From initial inquiries with the Optoma team in Russia to the support, technical advice, and logistics in the UK, everyone involved with the installation was very grateful for all of the help provided throughout the project.
RESULTS:
Dennis Astakhov reported that “We were excited to get to work with such a high-end product within such an intimate space, the projectors didn’t disappoint.”
“Everyone absolutely loved the installation; with a lot of positive feedback received. Visitors attested to loving the experience and having goosebumps on interacting with the artwork.”
“Both projectors were a fantastic solution to bring the space to life.”
“We had the immense pleasure of working with the Optoma team as well as the product itself. Everyone at Optoma was fantastically helpful and accommodating. We would be thrilled to work with the Optoma team again, as well as get a chance to implement Optoma products in our future showcases. The projectors were impeccable and we didn’t have a single issue when working with them.”
