SOLANUM is an augmented sculpture designed and built from scratch for the lounge of the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Houston. The physical body and its custom fit virtual guise were conceived to melt together and form a site-specific artwork closely corresponding with the given spatial structure.
The sculpture consists of layered elements that are carefully aligned to one another and compose an organic pattern that seems to sprout from the underlying tile texture. The projected video content follows a circadian rhythm. By daytime, the sculpture seems to perform gentle movements, just as if it was dreaming and moving in its sleep. When night falls, the nocturnal being awakens and comes to live. It reveals its full beauty in vibrant and rhythmic animations, inviting its spectators to linger and observe this fascinating play.
SOLANUM represents URBANSCREEN’s artistic approach of using projection mapping as a medium to create artworks that form a strong unit with their environment. By combining natural and artificial materials with a digital image layer, the augmented sculpture is located in the intersection between the virtual and the real.
Duration (loop): 20 min
Dimension: 8 x 2 m
Art Director: Julian Hölscher , Till Botterweck, Peter Pflug
3D Supervisor: Peter Pflug
Execution planning object: Ole Werner
Execution planning wall: Jason Mcilhaney
Mock-up: Till Botterweck
Media Engineer: Tobias Wursthorn , Elio Wahlen
Project Manager: Majo Ussat
Documentation Director: Daniel Dobers (www.dobers.com)
On-Site Camera: Daniel Dobers, Majo Ussat
Edit: iona w.
Music: iona w.
Special thanks go to Mark Benoit for his trust and good faith and to the Pearl Hospitality team for making the execution possible.