ILLUMINUS BOSTON

For me, the most interesting part of the festival was the light show on the largest outside face of the building. Specifically, I enjoyed the illusion of the building's bricks moving and rearranging. The images were so clear that the movement of the bricks appeared extremely realistic, even when viewed in very close proximity to the building. Not only was it visually stunning, but it seemed to realize an element of fantasy present in many childhood stories. I was reminded most clearly of the bricks in Harry Potter which rearrange to open secret passageways, but I know that such fantasy is present in many other stories. The other art on the outside of the building was nice, but not extraordinary. The bricks, though, seemed to make real the CGI used in movies with stunning visual clarity.

Another interesting exhibit was the display of visitors' faces on a large face-shaped screen. It was fascinating to see the people's faces projected so accurately on such a large screen. But the more enjoyable part was the humor of watching people adjust their faces to fit the screen. Before the visitors properly oriented themselves in front of the videocamera, their faces would move and distort into humorously absurd forms on the massive display. This clearly entertained both the crowd and the individuals being filmed. It was also nice to see something so interactive despite the expensive, sophisticated equipment used at the festival.

On the inside of the building was displayed a series of thematic images. We saw several of the different displays including mechanical toys and the beach. The toys were unique and bizarre (including two dancing chickens), and the were accompanied by music to which they amusingly danced. Mechanical noises also were played, adding another layer of reality to the already lifelike images. The beach was nice as well, soothing in imagery, but it lacked a relevant audio accompaniment, and seemed to be lacking in creativity, especially compared the the toys.

In the middle of the building, streaming, colorfully lit strands of fabric hunch from the ceiling to the floor. Walking through these was like walking through a forest, or swimming through an ocean. The movement of light made the already mobile fabric seem to move even more. The light was used extremely well in communicating a sense of motion without seeming artificial.

One of my personal favorite elements was the interactive graphical map which adjusted in the presence of people. Visually, it was rather remarkable. But, for me, it was great because it reminded me of the two-dimensional representation of general relativistic spacetime curvature. Because of its mathematical and physical association, I found this piece particularly appealing. It also was great for being interactive, and was fun to experiment with.

Another piece, separated from the rest of the light shows was on an adjacent building. It was elegantly simple: a welder at work. Yet, the mix of color (sparks) and darkness was aesthetically attractive, and its contrast to the more dynamic colors of pieces nearby offered a welcome juxtaposition of tones. Although this was perhaps the most basic of all the pieces at Illuminus, it was still extremely unique and interesting.