Video Projections on a Viking Ship; or Pinch Me
Am I still dreaming?
I’m very excited about my first test of video projections on the Gokstad ship at the Viking Ship Museum here in Oslo earlier today. Ellen Marie Næss, museum lecturer, and Guro Hjulstad, conservator, were on hand, and I thank them for their warm welcome and assistance. Since the ships are very dark, we weren’t sure what the images would look like. I projected moving video images from this clip http://vimeo.com/28406132 then paused the video to take some still photos (this prevents blurring of the video image). What we found is that the angle-of-reflection is very important. The image is brightest if you are at the right viewing angle. If you imagine the ship as having a mirror finish, you would want to see the projector lens’ reflection pointing directly at you. Did that make sense?
Anyway, my video-movie contained a number of different kinds of images: high contrast, low contrast, dark, light, more-or-less monochromatic, and some colorful shots. This was test the quality of the image. My personal impression was that even if the image was dim in certain instances, if there was movement, it was easy to see the imagery. In these still photos it is a little more difficult to see the projected image.
I think these are really beautiful: Two different shots of forest imagery from the Cascade Mountains in Washington. One shot (lower) is unaltered in the video, more-or-less, the other (upper) is superimposed over video of sea-ice that I took flying over Canada in August.
Here’s a shot of the projected image both on the boat and on the wall beyond. This gives you an idea of how dark, but not impossibly so, the ship is:
The projector, graciously lent by the very talented Victor Mutelekesha, was set at its widest setting, so I think I would need projectors with wide-angle lenses to get the right result. (Not to criticize Victor’s projector, of course.)
Here’s a nice shot looking down from the balcony. The Gokstad ship is so beautiful! I’m not trying to make it any more so, since I don’t think that’s possible. I hope what I’m doing is an homage, not gilding a lily.
