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[Best of 2015] The Year in Projection Mapping

From dance performances and tattoo art, projection mapping is becoming hard to miss.
Kat Von D Projection Mapping Makeup

You may not be quite sure what it is, but you know it when you see it. Colorful, morphing shapes and patterns that take into account the three dimensionality of the surfaces in which they are projected. Projection mapping had a great year; People’s faces got madeover, James Dean was honored, and high fashion got with it.

Out of all the appearances projection-mapping made this year, here are our top picks:

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+The grand-scale light projection illuminating the Sydney Opera House in animated splendor, epecially created for Sydney's VIVID Live.

+ Holymage’s Requiem Pour James Dean projected scenes of James Dean on a mini replica of his Porsche, and actually managed to make it look as if it was racing down a road for the 60th anniversary of his death. Projection mapping could be change how we honor our lost loved ones.

+ This year, evidently, the hipster died but artist Julien NONNON celebrated the hipster stance pairing bodies with animal heads titledSAFARI URBAIN on various Paris walls and buildings. They’re romantic and compelling to look at, but not aggressive or attention-seeking.

+ Wild Palms’ music video for their single Ennio, projected Pop art onto real people. The effects are intriguing, and it’s often hard to tell which parts are real and which are projected.

+ One of our favorite performances, titled Hakanaï by artists Adrien M / Claire B, masterfully combined the use of light, CGI, and dance. The performance took place live and the sequences responded to the dancer’s movements using a special sensor. Needless to say, we were captivated and Dancer Bends Light was one of our most popular posts to date.

+ Kat Von D’s face was transformed into a mesmerizing show that was part projection mapping, part performance art. The live audiovisual performance, which was orchestrated by Wildbytes, took projection-mapped makeup and extended it to her neck and torso. Wildbytes co-founder Julio Obelleiro called it their “most ambitious project to date.”

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+ Projection mapping became a key component of displaying CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The device is used to detect and explore other dimensions and dark matter. TED teamed up with CERN to create the show Turbulence which exhibited how the particle physics detector worked.

Sound Design & Music by Alican Okan

+ Artists Oskar & Gaspar transformed the tattoos of Eduardo Cavellucci and Igor Gama into morphing images directly on people’s bodies using projection mapping.

+ In-dinner entertainment started to really take off this year. Now you can witness actual animations projected onto your plate. The collective Skullmapping created the world’s tiniest chef in Le Petit Chef.

+ Futuristic cocktail dresses made through filmmaking, and projection mapping combined Bİ’ŞEYLER’s renditions of designer Ece Özalp’s patterns and Mehmet Ünal's music for a new version of haute couture.

+ Notable projection-mapped dance performances had us spinning in our seats from Adrien M / Claire B to Pixel n’Pepper, Daito Manabe, and Anarchy Dance Theatre. The trend had us spellbound by the many influences taking form, from ballet, kung fu, and aerial arts.

| Ljós | from fuse* on Vimeo.

Related:

Watch a Model’s Face Transform with Projection-Mapped Makeup

[Best of 2015] The Year in Photography

[Best of 2015] The Year in Sculpture