Living Large

Subtle is often effective, but sometimes being very large can truly engage the audience.  From video to live to installations to museums, these are the type of projects that get me going.  You can see samples of my work as I flesh out my website - www. thornleaf.com.

Kuroshio Sea
The main tank of the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium called the 'Kuroshio Sea' is breath-taking with the world's second largest acrylic glass panel.  Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.  The appearance is dazzling and the window is so clear that each year millions of visitors can believe, for a moment, that they have stepped into a magical underwater world.  And this video by Jon Rawlinson, with music provided by Barcelona, is stunning all on its own.  Watch it in HD and zoom out to full screen if you can.

Go to http://www.kaiyouhaku.com/en/ for more.


Mediatecture
At BMW, we're the fish in the tank, floating by each other as we gaze at the beautiful cars.  We are surrounded by a complete, ever-changing environment created with LED screens behind glass.  With three-dimensional moving images, the space is visually expanded, and the exhibited cars are virtually “set in motion”.  In the reactive mode, the pattern of illumination changes according to the presence of visitors.



The BMW Museum is a joint project of ART+COM (spatial media design, interactive installations) and Atelier Brückner (architecture, exhibition design).


Night Lights
Even bigger and more interactive is this playful expereince of the Auckland Ferry Building.  The installation goes beyond merely projection on buildings and allow viewers to become performers, by taking their body movements and amplifying them 5 stories tall. 

There are 3 different types of interaction - body interaction on the two stages, hand interaction above a light table, and phone interaction with the tracking of waving phones. There are 6 scenes, cycled every hour for the public.

Check out InsideOut Productions for more at http://iop.co.nz




Some nice inspirations for our next projects.

What's Moving

The Detroit Auto Show just opened and the interaction and media certainly isn't as exuberant (and creative?) as what we were doing there before the depression. See samples of my automotive work as I flesh out my website - www.thornleaf.com.  But there is some brand new and very interesting automotive marketing happening over in Europe.
Ford has created a giant interactive plasma ball as the focus (get it?) of their microsite promoting the new Ford Focus.
The video and flash created by Lumiere Studios (www.lumierestudios.co.uk/) are stunning.

Interact with the site at www.discoverfordfocus.co.uk  Touch the words above the timeline.

MiniCooper had a great guerilla campaign on the day after Christmas.  They placed empty boxes at garbage collection points implying people had unwrapped a Mini Cooper.  The boxes also conveyed the monthly lease cost of 99 Euros.  It definitely got passersby's interest and attention.

UbachsWisbrun / JWT were the creative.

And Mercedes Benz successfully translated their print campaign to video.  They have been promoting Brake Assist Plus as the first technology that reads the road.  In the print campaign, they communicated this with a page of words that are blurred out, so that the reader sees what really matters: a child. a ball, or a dog:

And here's how the campaign carried over to video - a brilliant use of text:

Sehsucht literally brought the words to life: http://www.sehsucht.de/page/work/

Send me your interesting ideas as well.

News and Music I'm Enjoying

The big news is that I've resigned from my old agency to get back to directing and creating. Call me and let's talk.

Diane Birch is a hot singer who has a very soulful sound.  Her song "Nothing But a Miracle" takes me back to Dusty Springfield & Laura Nyro.
www.dianebirch.com

In addition to her CD, I also like the the acoustic version from the guest apartment:

By the way (especially Salinger), www.baeble.com is a great place to watch live concerts.

Other music I'm enjoying is composer/pianist Coto Pincheira who has a great jazz/afrocarribbean band.  He's just released his first album, The Modern Sound Project. Keyboard Magazine calls him the best unsigned artist.  Check him out at www.cotopincheira.com

And how about Billy Philadelphia?  I used to listen to him at the Albatross in San Francisco and greatly enjoy his Hoagy Carmichael Musical.
www.billyphiladelphia.com