“The Animal is Absent” a Choreographed Light Show.

So often projection mapping is about blasting dynamic visuals onto large architectural space or flat walls. Less occasionally we see projections mapped onto sculptures or smaller surfaces, exploring both artforms in mesmerizing, wondrous union. Artist Harsha Biswajit’s “The Animal is Absent” is a great example of the potential for this kind of multimedia art, with its visuals projected onto a recumbent elephant.

Blow Factory, a creative agency that works in projection mapping and interactive visuals, recently created something similar with its Diana Mapping Sculpture, a work that applies projection mapping to a wooden sculpture. To create the piece, Blow Factory designed a wooden sculpture that was built out of 323 layers of wood. The Spanish woodworking company Caprinteria Tabares cut the sculpture with a numeric machine, while Blow Factory and Fink 3D-modeled and animated the visuals.

What’s interesting about the projection mapping here is that it really exploits the wood grain and surface texture, resulting in an incredibly gorgeous movement of light and patterns. The sculpture, which is now on display in Milan can be seen in Blow Factory’s video, which features music of Irène Drésel.