Brendan Paul: Context Mapping

For my final project in this course, I decided to do two different presentations. I did the first presentation in the main lobby of the ATEC building, and the other on the south wall of the lab room.

Context: 

For my first presentation, I had a lot of room to work with as I was projecting from a distance onto a large wall. I also had a lot of surfaces to work with, one of which was a door. I decided to use MadMapper to highlight these surfaces and make them stand out more than they normally would. 

For my second presentation inside the lab room, the south wall has a long stretch of cabinets that I could work with as well as other surfaces to add highlights to the room. 

Technique:

In the ATEC lobby, there was a lot of natural light, so normal effects would have a hard time being visible. In order to counter the bright light of the room, I used a lot of vibrant materials that are flashy and, even in a bright room, stand out. I used masks to box out the different surfaces on the wall and applied these materials to those surfaces. Some of these surfaces were paintings that, when mapped on, had a brighter appearance, and stood out more. There was also a door that I put a spiraling effect on to make it seem like a portal to another realm. 

On the lab’s south wall, I used the broad cabinets as a layer in my composition, boxing them off and adding materials to them that would contrast with the large, bright background. I also applied a material to the large column in the far corner, as I saw potential in it. The foreground, which is cluttered with computers and printers and the like, I put a material over in order to have it blend with the rest of the composition more. I made three different scenes, each mostly focusing on the large background. The first background being this cool reflective shape that has a camera panning around it, with its middle ground being these bright blue neon effects strown across the cabinets. The second background was this green effect that was described as "alien", with its middle ground being a mercury effect that I tinted green. And the third being a digital landscape background with some more techy looking effects for the middle ground. 

Interpretation:

I liked how this project was a way to come to a better understanding of my environment around me. I now can look around a room and think about what could be done in order to make each and every element within it pop and stand out. The piece I did in the middle of the ATEC lobby was fun and really helped me see what can be done with the environment around you. 

ATEC Lobby Presentation

 South Wall Presentation