Video Mapping in Audiovisual Performances: Projecting the Club Scene Onto the Urban Space

Abstract

This article focuses on the use and evolution of video mapping in audio-visual performances over the last decade. This multimedia technology, used for projecting light or video onto volumes, was quickly adopted by the A/V scene, and was the subject of numerous outdoor shows. Our paper details the multiple functions of this projective technique as a singular type of multimedia production based on mixing live sound and visual materials for an audience, through a process of technological mediation. The search for new visual experiences, through gigantism, relief and depth effects, will take this practice beyond the boundaries of clubs, thus reaching a broader audience.

We will demonstrate through video mapping, how audio-visual performers extend the synesthetic experiments which are at the core of this practice, both spatially and technologically. We then illustrate, by way of example, how these visual artists reshape urban space, most notably by considering buildings’ facades as the original sensory interface between the tactile activity operated by the performer in his work of visualization and sound, with the public who interacts with the audio-visual objects created.