An Artist Is Projection-Mapping Astonishing Visuals On A Giant Ferris Wheel In Mexico

Romain Tardy's "MGNTRN" turns a new media festival's centerpiece into a visual spectacle.

by DJ Pangburn

May 9, 2014, 4:50pm

Images by Karina Urias

In his time working as a new media artist, Romain Tardy has mapped visuals onto all sorts of surfaces. At least year's Proyecta (a new media arts festival in Mexico), Tardy debuted The Ark,an ephemeral installation of towering stalagmite-like sculptures that served as an asymmetrical canvas for visuals loosely-inspired by the Great Flood. A year earlier, Tardy mapped “abstract constellations” and “enigmatic symbols” onto a latticed structure for PAGAN, which was seen at the Museum of Antiquities of Toulouse, France. But, when Proyecta threw down the gauntlet, asking Tardy to fashion an installation out of a ferris wheel in the city of Puebla, Mexico, Tardy had no clue what to do.

“I was just finishing a project in NYC when I got a call from them asking me to come to Mexico to see something they couldn’t really explain to me on the phone,” said Tardy. “Twelve hours later I was standing in front of this huge Ferris wheel in Puebla, with no clue about what I could do with such a massive thing—with basically no surface to project onto.”

Despite the creative challenge, Tardy put his nose to the grindstone and created MGNTRN (pronounced “magnotron”), one of four giant outdoor audio-visual installations commissioned by Proyecta that premieres today. Aside from MGNTRN, Tardy said that festival goers will also experience an “expanded cinema piece” called The Nose (inspired by the Nikolaï Gogol book), a “pimped-out LED bike parade,” and an augmented concert in a park.

“This was kind of a unique situation for me, and a great challenge,” said Tardy. “Proyecta wanted to commission a mapping piece, but [one] where the projection support had yet to be invented.” Tardy said that he was already exploring the possibilities of adding a physical extension to a building onto which he projected visuals (PAGAN, France, 2012), and even using the building as only a support for a structure (#DÉFILÉ, Prague, Czech Republic, 2013). But, the idea that custom structures could be autonomous was a more ambitious step forward.

“Unlike The Ark, where the artistic approach was to create a more intimate piece on a small and sensible surface, this installation required a more frontal approach, and the necessity to measure itself against this ferris wheel, so it doesn’t get lost in the middle of this huge square—which can also be seen as a blank page,” he said. “As the wheel would obviously be the most visible element of the installation, I started to think about creating some kind of an ephemeral, imaginary fun fair, but using a much more minimal aesthetics.”

Despite hitting on the imaginary fun fair idea, Tardy still felt that something was missing. While doodling in search of some visual references, he came across a website hosting tons of pictures of old pinballs, all listed by year, manufacturer and type.

“It then appeared very clearly to me that this installation would have something to do with pinball,” Tardy said. “I suddenly remembered how amazing this thing is: an object where sound and visuals are perfectly synchronized, with crazy motion and dynamics, and the ability to bring you in different universes just by changing the combination of lights on the game board.”

Tardy spent hours conceiving a retro-futurust design inspired by the legendary science fiction pinball game The Machine: Bride of Pin•Bot. Working on the game's concept and visuals, Tardy produced the raw idea of MGNTRN. As Tardy told me, the combination of very sharp graphics and an “extravagant imaginary world” instantly became a primary goal for the installation. AlthoughTardy took inspiration from fun fairs and pinballs, he emphasized that MGNTRN has its own story.

“The installation is based on an imaginary space travel of a lost astronaut, which is both an actual and an introspective journey,” said Tardy, who stated the story is always important to him, even when working with abstracted visuals. “MGNTRN is here depicted as an omniscient character, who will appear at some point of the story to tell his enigmatic words to the audience. I think augmenting a structure is not only about adding something visual to it—the spectacular effect, which is the easy part—but adding meaning to it, so it can also stimulate your imagination.”

As with past installations, Tardy worked with long-time partner-in-creative-crime [Squeaky Lobster](http:// https://soundcloud.com/squeaky-lobster) to compose an 8-channel soundtrack for the piece. The idea was to make the installation as immersive as possible when people encounter the two massive structures, which Tardy described as simultaneously visible and hidden.

“Both [structures] are made of a dense network of lines, that are abstract at the first glance,” he said. “This is where the video mapping technique comes in, and will reveal what’s lying at the heart of these structures. I like the idea that video mapping doesn’t really create new things, but only reveals the ones that are hidden.”

As for what's being mapped onto the structures, Tardy said he wanted more figurative content. The idea was to give the public “keys” to decipher the piece's underlying story.

“The screens are both used as abstract geometric light modules, and as regular screens to display computer-generated animations,” he said. “The screen shapes were designed in relation with the graphic elements that are featured in the piece, so they can be turned into different things depending on what’s projected onto them: an imaginary spaceship dashboard as well as Magnotron’s cave.”

To fully pull off the installation, Tardy and his team had to create a 200-plus light module system. It features 32 LED pars with Wi-Fi control based in the ferris wheel's cabins, then 196 Barco Mistrips arranged in the shape of two big triangles located in the middle of the space (for the light field/launch pad area). Tardy used OpenFrameworks and a host of add-ons to have full control of the installation.

Well, full control is a bit misleading. As Tardy told me, a tiny analog robot controls the LED ferris wheel. The robot grew out of necessity, as his team were not allowed access to any light control except manual switches.

“To allow perfect synchronization, we decided to make a little robot that would do this job for us, with perfect timing,” Tardy explained. “We had to build it onsite with the hardware we could find here in Puebla, resulting in a nice wooden structure attached to the control panel using GoPro suction cups.” After molding the buttons, Tardy said they were were able to move the controls using servo motors, which were connected to an Arduino receiving a wireless DMX signal from the media server.

Tardy said the biggest challenge was creating a piece that will speak to people. “That goes beyond the first impression of being big and/or technologically advanced,” said Tardy. “Robots will probably take over the world one day, but I’m wondering if they’ll do it with feelings.”