Searchlight II

Generative scanning projection system.

Searchlight began as a series of temporary public realm installations marking the beginning of a massive re-evaluaton of the urban fabric of Sunderland. A software and hardware solution was developed to control and record the movement of cameras and synchronise these coordinates with captured footage. Hundreds of local volunteers were filmed from cranes at locations across the city. In the following months, from vantage points across the city, including helium balloons, bridges and historic buildings, scanning projection systems superimposed the recorded population as silhouettes across the streets, public squares and river. As the moving lights searched the landscape, they revealed the life-size animated shadows of an invisible population. Viewers could stand in the projected beam and find their own shadow accompanied by those cast by a virtual community.

Searchlight II was a further development of the project. The Sunderland experiments developed optically-correct shadow projection through joystick-controlled filming from fixed locations and through the precise playback of camera angles. The restriction of this format lay in the reliance of the installation on pre-recorded footage and the essential linear narratives captured by this method. Moving on from this form, Searchlight II mandated the development of a software environment that would allow for a generative population to coexist with the viewers of the installations. Developing a mechanism for the angle of projection to relate to virtual cameras within a Unity3D cgi landscape allowed for intelligent, and algorithmic avatars to cast shadows within the physical realm.

No longer limited to documented images, these new avatars were capable of transforming their shapes in real time – referening the behaviours and frequency of people within the gallery. The evolving narratives were defined by the parameters and characteristics of the physical spaces selected for installation and the relationship of Searchlight II to the movement of audience through the museum.

Materials:

Chalk, timber, custom software, networked MacPro array, Matrox Image Blending Hardware and 3 x Projection Design Projectors.

With enormous thanks to:

Hydar Dewachi
Jan Wedekind
Robert Jeffries

Stephen Foster, Ros Carter, Julian Grater, Zoha Zokaei and colleagues at John Hansard Gallery

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