So I picked up the paperback of William Gibson’s latest novel, Spook Country, at the airport on the way to Vegas for Infocomm. I haven’t read anything of his since Neuromancer, back when that was all the rage. To be honest, that groundbreaking book didn’t do much for me except give me a headache, but I’m sure I was as behind the times as the book was ahead of it. I’m finding the new one a little easier to grasp so far (I’m currently only about 100 pages into it). It’s discussing the utilization of GPS, VR, and other technologies to create “locative” art; one installation is a virtual recreation of River Phoenix’s death scene outside the Viper Club (sooo LA), while another one is a giant squid floating over a Japanese department store with a constant flood of video imagery passing over its surface.



Of course, you gotta wear goggles to view this stuff in the book, though, this being William Gibson, it suggests that someday we’ll all be wired to view such site-specific stuff automatically, without all the accessories. But what struck me about it, particularly the latter project, was the fact that there are projection designers already doing this kind of work, maybe not site specific, but certainly in the context of another project, be it onstage or in an architectural setting.

So the question is, are projection designers so far ahead of the curve they’re anticipating Gibson? Or does Gibson just not get to the theatre very often?

Assuming there are a healthy number of cybergeeks out in our world, I’d love to hear any feedback on this latest novel, and if you think there are parallels to the world of entertainment technology. But please, no spoilers, I gotta lot left to read.

(Originally posted June 28)

I’ve decided that trying to say goodnight early in this industry is fruitless, and by early, I mean 11:30pm. But when you start making the rounds to bid everyone adieu at that time, you suddenly find yourself chatting another two hours.

But starting at the end of the night isn’t very helpful here, is it? Last night was the Barco event at Philadelphia’s Comcast Center, where the largest indoor LED screen (and a pretty high res one at that—7,000 Barco NX-4 modules and 10 million pixels, to be exact) is the center of attention in the building’s lobby. At 83′ x 25′, it’s sort of hard to miss.

You really have to see this. It’s a fantastic example of art and technology creating a stunning work of public art, and that’s just what it’s meant to be—no Comcast logos or branding in sight. In fact, it’s called The Comcast Experience, a name that probably does it a tad more justice than “the screen.” The content (which can loop unique combinations for up to two years, courtesy of the programming of Alan Anderson of Medialon) was created by David Niles of Niles Creative, who consulted on the project from its early stages and shot all the content in his New York studio.

The wall looks like wood paneling to match the rest of the lobby (and it really does look like wood paneling, not like a screen). Then, dare I say, out of the woodwork comes content (everything from a piano virtuoso filmed at various angles taking up the entire screen, to almost 1:1 scale people climbing the walls, to a Van Gogh painting that appears to seep out of the wall for its reveal). What struck me most about the presentation is that the content looks incredibly three dimensional, like nothing I’ve ever seen before. You can say I don’t get out much, but you really do have to see this. It has a 30% higher resolution than IMAX.

Dana Cory from Barco did a great job hosting the event, and I had a lovely dinner with Serge Nalbantian of Liberty Property Trust (partner of Comcast in this project), Laird Nolan from MIT, and Ken Romaine of Barco, followed by a tour of the control room with Alex Carru from Medialon and Guy Russel from Barco.

The project is actually on the cover of The Philadelphia Inquirer this morning, but nothing in print or on screen will do this thing justice.