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Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Kauffman Center For The Performing Arts

The Opportunity

For the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts grand opening event, we were asked to bring a once in a lifetime experience for patrons of the arts and celebrate one of the most unique and beautiful performing art spaces in the country, designed by Moshe Safdie. 

The Outcome

We built a system that allowed musicians to control particles flowing across the space. We placed sensors on the instruments and musicians fingers, which gave us input data to drive the parameters of the generative animation utilizing a mix of Cinder and Max5, blending music and light seamlessly and creating a memorable experience for our patrons. 

 

 

The Experience

During each vignette, particles that echoed the performer's element were released following the performer's actions and traveled along the two adjacent walls in the space. They traveled outside toward the performing arts center opposite to the performer wall. Once they reached the performing arts center, they would travel along the roof, connecting the performers on the opposite end to the building itself — their new home.

Experience design: Particle flow across buildings

Experience design: Particle flow across buildings

Visual design for generative animation

Visual design for generative animation

Generative animated particles sampled from pre rendered video.

Generative animated particles sampled from pre rendered video.

 

High Speed Camera Shoot

Within any performance, the audience misses a great deal of detail. Nuances from the performers are beautifully articulated, from slight facial expressions to delicate muscle movements. The concept was to use high speed cameras in an attempt to capture these lost moments in time — giving a visual voice to a performance's still and introspective nature through the use of abstract and expressionistic visuals inspired by the performances themselves.