Roberto Fazio's Light Studio Brings Projection Mapping To The Next Level

Fazio’s projection at the Kernel Festival 2011 

When we interviewed Italian projection mapping artist Luca Agnani last week, he gave us a brief list of noteworthy peers he worked alongside at the City of Lights festival in Moscow, last fall. Some much needed insight, considering this relatively new iteration of spacial augmented reality is becoming more and more prominent in digital arts scenes the world over.

One name he emphasized was Roberto Fazio—an Italian digital artist with a studio based in Bologna. Agnani called him, rather matter-of-factly, a “guru” in the field. Naturally you’re left to skeptically contemplate such lofty terms with a see-it-to-believe-it attitude, but a quick search through Fazio’s portfolio reveals why a guy as celebrated in the Italian visual arts scene as Agnani would throw laurels his way.

Not only has Fazio cultured his own aesthetic touch—a style that incorporates negative space as a lever to increase the incandescence of his grid-heavy projections—but he’s even helped make the tools of his craft more accessible to artist communities by creating 3D mapping computer programs and hosting 101-type workshops at festivals internationally.

In support of Agnani’s praise, we decided to profile a few of the works Fazio had a hand in.

Stills from Lexars 3D Projection 

As part of his commission by US-based digital memory solutions company Lexar, Fazio worked with studio partner Luca Brioschi to create a 3D projection that spreads its grid-plane across two screens, strategically set side-by-side to form a corner. According to Fazio’s website, the video design took only 1 week to create, and was heavily inspired by Joanie Lemercier’s EYJAFJALLAJöKULL projection for visual label Antivj.

Below is a video of the projection, which debuted at the PhotoShow Milan:

As for his architectural mapping projects, here are a few stills from Fazio’s projection on the Palazzo Capitaniato in Padova, Italy, which he designed as a tribute to French multi-media artist Jacques Villeglè. In some of the stills, you see seemingly torn photos pasted over one another, collage-style, and sprawling tracts of graffiti, to commemorate Villeglè’s work as an affichiste.

Like his other projection mappings, this one relies heavily on the creative coding toolkit OpenFrameworks—a lynchpin software in 3D visual design artists’ toolboxes worldwide.

Stills from 3D Projection Mapping on Palazzo Capitaniato, Padova, IT

Aside from these, Fazio has also made impressive moves developing crowdsource platforms. For his WEATHERIZE Data Visualization installation, he gave users the ability to see weather patterns of major cities of choice in captivating graphical forms.

Some specifics, according to Fazio’s website: “Users can interact [through Twitter by tweeting] their favorite cities using the hashtag #wtrz NameCity. In real time, the system returns the representation of weather conditions regarding temperature, humidity and wind speed at that precise moment, which change according to the city selected by the user.”

Fazio developed the piece alongside Gianluca Macalusco, member of the Italian digital design group DEEP.

Vienna

Weatherize, Fazio's Data Visualization project

Here’s a video which shows the transformations in real-time:

At the end of last year, Fazio led a workshop at the City of Lights festival in Moscow, Russia, where he taught participants with a nascent interest in 3D mapping the basics for realizing their aspirations. Aside from that, he’s been an active supporter of contemporaries in his scene, as represented by his Twitter feed, and the various interviews of peer artists he hosts over at his website. Check it out to read more about his favorite artists, as well as keep up-to-date on his next big projects.

Follow Johnny Magdaleno on Twitter: @johnny_mgdlno