TYPE
Interactive AR Attraction
ROLE
Designer
- Creative Director
COMMISSIONED BY
LOCATION
Houston, TX
TIMEFRAME
4 Months
DATES
Opened Dec. 2020
⭐ Updated Apr. 2021
SERVICES
Conceptual Development
Schematic Design
️ Design Development
Construction Drawings
Systems Design / Testing
Generative Content
Interactive Design
Installation
✨Projection Mapping
Sound Design
Audio Engineering
BUDGET
$ ###,###
FABRUCATION
3D ANIMATION
Lumen & Forge
SPECIAL THANKS
Smooth Technology
John Anselmo
Lorena “LoFi” De la Cruz
LORE
Inside the high-octane bath of the bioreactor that powers the entire facility, an unlikely ecosystem of mysterious creatures has taken hold and flourished in isolation.
ABOUT
SPECIMEN is an integrated media installation that utilizes a variation of a modular cylindrical projection system developed by JJest. SPECIMEN uses 6 of these modules along with an additional two projectors to for a total of 8 projectors and 22 displays surfaces. The various display surfaces are organized into two portrait “tanks” and six “pipes” that snake throughout the room from floor to ceiling.
(iter. 1, Ecesis), 2020
Generative
Multimedia audiovisual installation
DESIGN
FABRICATION
“Shall I render utilizing proposed specifications?”
“Thrill me.”
Unlike Marvel’s Iron Man, JJest does not have a futuristic A.I. assistant capable of manufacturing designs under the floorboards of a sprawling Malibu mansion. However, on occasion we are lucky enough to hand off work to Professional Scenic Services, and the experience is very similar.
INSTALLATION
Your bioreactor has been delivered ✔️
(some assembly required)
PROJECTION
Light it up
XENOZOOOLOGIC DESIGN
Specifying the Specimen
SCENIC LIGHTING
Setting the tone, and hue
Colors don’t pop themselves.
If you’ve ever noticed the colors of a film, concert, or other experience were particularly pleasing to the eye, odds are that there was a visual director behind the scenes with very strong and detailed opinions about those colors.
On a large project it’s tempting for designers to adopt a vague visual directive like super colorful or oversaturated, but these approaches are open to interpretation and thereby more often result in muddied and clashing color schemes.
Instead, it’s best to create a specific swatch of colors to guide every material, surface treatment, light wash, accent light, and projected image within a set. If a scene is dynamic, such as SPECIMEN, it may be necessary to create multiple swatches for each scene.
COLOR STUDY
SPECIMEN‘s color direction takes cues from from a specific scene from Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). In the film, the lunar landing scene (pictured below) serves as a visual transition from the ultra-high contrast black and white aesthetic of the previous space travel sequence to the more colorful aesthetic of the next sequence inside the colorful technology-rich subterranean lunar base.
This precedent offered a beautifully elegant approach to treating the interior and exterior of SPECIMEN‘s pipes.
IMPLEMENTATION
Several light fixtures were installed in late 2021 to boost color and photographability within the room. Currently we are working on tying the DMX light fixtures into the interactive audio/video system, which will allow the lights to dim and complement the interactive shields that are activated via the valve wheels.
