HOTA, Home Of The Arts Exhibitions

 

Overview

The HOTA animation projects are harder ones to post about since so much of it is the experience and the technical feat more than a pretty .mp4 export. The below two projects show more process and snippets from these giant exhibition animations, headed by the amazing Dan Rice.

 
 

Ken Done Exhibition

The Ken Done exhibition at HOTA needed four of Ken's pieces to be projected across their circular entry space, bringing his work to life as an animated world. I isolated the animated elements from each piece and set them on a journey: from Ken's studio, out to the beach, down beneath the ocean to a sunlit reef, and finally into the deep reef before looping back. The sequence ran across a projection system spanning a mighty 7680 x 480 pixels.

Working with Dan and the HOTA team, we jumped through the technical hoops needed to get this mammoth running on their systems. The result: a massive projection that flooded the room in the colours of Ken's work.

 

Full Video

For the very curious, here is the full length video. The main thing to get from this is the awesome soundscape that was designed and mixed by Hayden Riley.

 

Highlights

I spent time weaving in tiny, micro-stories within each piece, small details easy to miss on a first watch. The most rewarding moment came from something I almost dismissed as background animation nobody would notice, only to overhear a patron in the space mention how much they loved the windsurfer coming to shore.

 

Aka Sorbie: Saltwater Heart

 

Overview

The immersive Children’s Gallery exhibition at HOTA was on the hunt for some of Lisa Sorbie Martin’s artwork to be animated swimming through the interactive space. This project was a single projection, but unlike Ken Done, the artwork needed to take into account real-world objects to swim between and be obscured.

Dan and I worked closely with the HOTA team to bring the sardines to life, ensuring they swam naturally through the environment and projected flawlessly within the space. The final step was visiting the exhibition in person to see everything come together. It did not disappoint.

Junior on-field tester.

 

Early Projection Testing

 
 
 

Promotional Images

Credit: Courtesy of HOTA, Home of the Arts (@hotagc)