Sunday, July 3, 2011

Customs House gets an Electronic Facelift (Sydney)


As part of Vivid 2011, various Sydney buildings were lit with a dazzling array of colour and imagery. The highlight was Sydney's stately Customs House where the grand 19th century colonial building was given a 21st century electronic facelift. Eight projectors were carefully aligned with a fine precision to the various columns, and levels of the building to create a visual feast. To ensure perfect alignment, the projectors were held into place with ballast as the slightest move would have thrown the whole image out (see the setup in more detail)

The result was a ten minute visual degustation menu as Customs House sneezed, bulged, melted, vapourised, filled with water, crinkled, flamed, crumbled and was splattered with paint bombs (pictures below can be expanded by clicking on them). The clock wizzed around at break-neck speed like a Mad Hatter's timepiece while the stately coat of arms irreverently glowed all colours of the rainbow.

More description of Vivid 2011 and the lighting of the Sydney Opera House is highlighted in an earlier article.




7 comments:

Barbara Weibel said...

Wow! I never would have recognized it if you hadn't said it was the Customs House. Beautiful.

Mark H said...

@barbara: I love the way that lighting completely changes the mood of the building giving a modern look to a stately building.

puertoricoistheplace said...

Wow..fantastic work. Looks beautiful!

Mark H said...

@puertoricoistheplace: Thank you. It certainly was a stunning sight.

Sherry Ott said...

How cool! They did something similar in Brussels last summer in the main square - the technology involved is amazing!

Anil said...

It's like real-life Photoshopping :) Looks much better!

Mark H said...

@sherry: I think there are now companies that specialise in these giant projections. Must be incredibly detailed as each backdrop is so different.

@anil: I wish I'd thought of that description. Architectural Photoshop...hhmmm

 
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