SCOTTSDALE, AZ. – As cities, festivals and museums look for safe and exciting ways to foster community engagement, Canal Convergence | Water + Art + Light, Scottsdale Public Art’s annual art experience, is at the forefront of reconnecting residents with the city. Illuminating the streets of Scottsdale, Ariz. from Nov. 6-15, Canal Convergence alumni MASARY Studios will bring its community-driven public art expression “Massively Distributed” (MD) to life with enchanting, light-based artwork using high-performance Epson laser projectors.
More details from Epson (www.epson.com):
MASARY Studios worked with the Scottsdale Public Art media team to capture audio and visual samples from Scottsdale for a creative palette that drives the web-based app instrument and public art installation. Accessible across laptops, tablets and smartphones, MD encourages the public to find joy in creativity by submitting compositions from the site-specific media instrument for inclusion in the large-scale projection mapped installations. MD will play back the “meta-compositions” through the video projections and professional sound systems, displaying the public’s submissions alongside those of their neighbors, other community members and even others from across the world.
“Canal Convergence is proud to present the engaging audio-visual installation ‘Massively Distributed’ by MASARY Studios in a safe and socially-distanced format,” said Jennifer Gill, public art manager, Canal Convergence. “Crowd-sourced from a web-based app created by MASARY Studios, using the sights and sounds of Scottsdale, Epson projectors are central in our effort to make this project accessible to many people as they safely enjoy the work.”
“Massively Distributed” will be presented in three prominent locations throughout Old Town Scottsdale. Each location will use two Epson Pro L1755U projectors along with a variety of compatible Epson lenses to display artwork onto a building facade. MASARY Studios will use LANG frames to stack the two 15,000 lumen1 Epson projectors to display double the light output. Stacking allows for a more compact, efficient installation that can be powered from standard 120V sources. Using the Epson projectors’ built-in tools, MASARY Studios will blend images to create one seamless large-scale work of art.
“We hope to reconnect people with one another, as well as with the cities they live in, through our ‘Massively Distributed’ project at Canal Convergence this year,” said Sam Okerstrom-Lang, media artist, founder and principal, MASARY Studios. “MD expands from samples of the Arizona landscape, to the palm of your hand when interacting, and then ultimately the scale of buildings through public video projection. The Epson projectors made life so much easier for setup, allowing us to converge images and create massive, bright pieces of art that pop beautifully to make our artistic vision really come into full picture for the public.”
Canal Convergence will take place Nov. 6-15 with artwork throughout Old Town Scottsdale and the Arizona Canal at the Scottsdale Waterfront. The annual art experience is free for the public to attend and offers livestreamed performances as well as in-person events held at the Scottsdale Center for Performing Arts.
“We continue to be amazed by artists and their ability to unleash creativity using projection,” said Ramzi Shakra, product manager, large-venue projectors, Epson America. “At a time when people crave in-person experiences, ‘Massively Distributed’ offers a unique way for people to reconnect with their city and express creativity through safe interactions with the artwork they are viewing.”
For additional information and hours, visit www.canalconvergence.com/2020-overview/
