- [Jane Pauley] It's one part, sign,
two part, spectacle,
coming soon to a city near you.
Here's Serena Altschul.
(street sounds)
- Have you ever walked around a town,
looked at a building and thought,
that would make a perfect canvas.
(upbeat music)
Well, that's how artist, Ryan Uzilevsky, sees it.
He and his studio, Light Harvest,
can take a massive building like Philadelphia City Hall,
and make it do this... (music livens up)
- Is your life constantly looking at (chuckling)
walls and surfaces as potential structures for art?
- Actually. Yeah, (laughing)
it's completely changed how I view the world.
(artsy music)
- [Serena] It's called, "Projection mapping,"
a fusion of art and technology.
Multiple projectors shine onto a building,
and that building transforms.
- This medium is so powerful,
that it creates these moments of awe
and these moments of vulnerability in the audience.
They can't really believe what they're seeing.
- [Serena] For Uzilevsky,
who has a background in filmmaking,
he projects that this is the ultimate form of storytelling.
- When people watch a film,
they are confined in a dark room.
They're not allowed to speak or to move.
I realized I wanted to do something that was more immersive.
- [Serena] In the world of digital design,
huge canvases can come with huge risks,
if you don't plan ahead.
Before he even begins to think big,
he prints small 3D models of the buildings.
- I'll put this template everywhere in my living space,
in order to wait for my mind to come up with
specific ideas that work for these shapes.
- You wait for them to come to you.
- Yeah, I just, I remain open and then,
and what comes, comes.
- [Serena] But for all the technology needed
to shine his ideas on urban landscapes,
Uzilevsky often retreats to nature
in Santa Cruz, California.
- I like to take inspiration from nature
and bring it back to the city,
and try to make the walls and the buildings of the cities
feel as alive as a forest would.
- [Serena] That inspiration, (insects chirping)
turned this hotel (fireflies buzzing)
into his latest show called, "Firefly."
- I don't think the architects of the past ever realized
that there are people like me that would come along
and start augmenting their buildings
into different materials and shapes and transformations.
- My favorite kind of people are geeks who are also artists,
because people that really understand,
both technology and the arts,
do things you could never imagine.
- [Serena] Projection mapping has been illuminating
for Joshua Bernard and Tice Lerner too.
For seven years, (indistinct chatter)
they've hosted the LUMA Projection Arts Festival
in downtown Binghamton, New York.
- If people are gonna stay interested in projection mapping,
it can't just be the fireworks.
It has to be next level.
- [Serena] Not only do they bring in artists,
like Uzilevsky, to paint the town with light,
but also projection mappers from around the world.
It takes days, (machine whirring)
and long hours into the night,
to set up these larger-than-life artworks,
where precision is key,
pixel by pixel must match brick by brick,
and the results can be epic. (indistinct chatter)
- You go watch a building,
you see this beautiful animation on it
and you can't take it home.
You can record it on your phone,
but that will never be like seeing it there.
- [Serena] Before you get any bright ideas,
most light shows are often a promotional stunt
by big brands.
So unless there's some major sponsorship involved,
this can be an expensive art form.
- These projectors that we use,
range anywhere from 50
to even up to a hundred thousand dollars per projector,
without the lens.
- The larger the object you're projecting on,
whether it's a building or a city block
or a stage, - Right.
the more projectors you need and the more expensive it gets.
- And the more immersive it feels.
- Yet, the more powerful it gets,
with the larger the scale. - Yeah.
- So this is a case where more, is more.
- More, is more. (dreamy music)
- [Serena] But for Ryan Uzilevsky and Light Harvest,
to use projection mapping is to see the light.
- I can not only see the world for what it is,
but also I can see the world for what it could be.
And then I can take the world and transform it
into what I think it could be.
(dreamy music continues)