SPECIMEN

at SEISMIQUE


TYPE

๐ŸŽ Interactive AR Attraction


ROLE

๐Ÿ“ Designer

  • ๐Ÿ‘จโ€๐ŸŽจ Creative Director


COMMISSIONED BY

๐Ÿ›ธ SEISMIQUE


LOCATION

๐Ÿ“Houston, TX


TIMEFRAME

๐Ÿ“† 4 Months


DATES

๐ŸŽŠOpened Dec. 2020

โญ Updated Apr. 2021


SERVICES

๐Ÿ”ฎ Conceptual Development

๐Ÿ– Schematic Design

๐Ÿ–ฑ๏ธ Design Development

๐Ÿ“ Construction Drawings

๐Ÿ’ป Systems Design / Testing

๐ŸŽฅ Generative Content

๐Ÿ– Interactive Design

๐Ÿฆบ Installation

โœจProjection Mapping

๐Ÿ”Š Sound Design

๐ŸŽง Audio Engineering


BUDGET

$ ###,###


FABRUCATION

Professional Scenic Services


3D ANIMATION

๐ŸŽฅ Lumen & Forge


SPECIAL THANKS

๐Ÿ’ป Smooth Technology

๐Ÿ”จ John Anselmo

๐Ÿšจ 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 ๐Ÿ“

FABRICATION

โ€œShall I render utilizing proposed specifications?โ€

"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 โœ”๏ธ

(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.

Before

After

After