Chicago’s iconic Merchandise Mart makes an ideal canvas for these dynamic and colorful art projections. In the fall of 2018, the show’s opening night brought thousands of viewers, and the ongoing art displays continue to shine a spotlight on the city of Chicago. To achieve this feat of projection, we began by replacing the original flood lights with over 600 LED RGBW fixtures, which highlight the beauty of the ornate architecture and work better with the fast-paced projections. Through a series of full-scale mockups and beam studies, our team selected fixtures to mount at a variety of lighting locations. This new lighting reaches three times higher and brighter than before, showcasing the building on the city skyline while also significantly reducing its energy consumption. Lastly, we partnered closely with a system integrator to design controls that would synchronize with the art projections. We continue to collaborate with the featured artists, matching their art pieces to the lighting cues second-by-second to create a dazzling spectacle similar to a theatrical production.
