Art on the Mart will be presented as the world's largest permanent projection system

For the realization of this large-scale visual art installation have been used 34 Christie Boxer 4K30 projectors. Obscura Digital has developed a software-driven platform that will allow The Mart to offer a continuous display of images of celebrated artists over an area of more than two acres..

The Merchandise Mart, also known as The Mart, is a building located in downtown Chicago (Illinois) which was inaugurated in 1930 to present itself as the largest in the world. With a surface area of more than 370.000 square meters and an elevation of 25 floors, is visited by some 10 millions of people a year.

On the façade of this emblematic building, the largest permanent art installation in the world is being launched., Art on the Mart. Its inauguration will take place on Saturday 29 september and four contemporary and digital works of art will be shown. The screening will last two hours and can be seen five nights a week, ten months a year for decades to come.

The exhibition will be dedicated solely to public art and will not show any promotional or advertising content.

The creative studio Obscura Digital has been commissioned to implement a permanent projection system that allows the building to be illuminated. For its realization it has partnered with the property management company Vornado Realty Trust and architecture firm Valerio Dewalt Train Associates (VDTA).

Project development

The challenge of this project was to create a projection system that would allow The Mart team to display the images in the building., while respecting Department of Transportation restrictions (Department of Transportation) that limit dynamic animations that can pose a danger by distracting drivers.

Obscura Digital has created a flexible content management system to load any image and select from a series of effects or 'filters'. The software-driven platform allows The Mart to offer a continuous display of images of celebrated artists on a surface of more than 8.000 square meters (more than two acres).

A digital 3D model of the building has been created from a laser scan to take into account its architectural features, recreate the projection settings in the software and get the image to align perfectly. Building windows are masked by software, so the projectors do not illuminate the interior of the building.

For the execution of the mapping are used 34 Christie Digital Boxer 4K30 projectors offering a total of almost two million (1.980.000) of lumens and a resolution of 6,000×2.620 Pixels. These are located in a room, custom-designed and weatherproof.

The project has used a 3D architectural mapping of 3 canals. The main ones have 16 projectors each, stacked to increase brightness, and the central channel, covering the central tower, has two stacked projectors. Channels are mixed to create a perfect image.

Projectors are calibrated manually to ensure the image fits the façade. Mapping on different architectural facets of the building is adjusted independently to minimize color and brightness differences.

 

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