The competition this time, which was held in Miyazaki, is like a build up of history, as this is the 7th time the competition has been held since 2012. We would like to thank all the creators who have participated in this competition.Within these 7 years, there are remarkable changes in the video and art world that include projection mapping. The biggest challenge as a competition is how will this all fit into this era? There is actually a strong part that projection mapping on architecture competition is a competition as a pure “video expression”, rather than something more “advance”. A miniature version of projection mapping is also known as “Micro Mapping” in the West. In addition to the personality and technique of video expression, taking into account the relationship between the reflected images on the objects and the viewers until to independently complete the method of production in space, this will be a big field of advanced expression and challenge. To deviate a bit, if there are researches that expand the expression methods and its variation in the horizontal direction, the depth to aim for completion and maturity is also important. Projection mapping on a building is definitely part of that, making it to be a recent booming segment.
The international competition like ours requires a multifaceted vision that looks to the future, and I believe there is an obligation to present it as contents and results. I am very pleased that there are higher number of entry works, more attention to youngsters and new faces, rising the level of the works each year which increases the motivation of all the organizers.
The venue of the 7th competition is the Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, where the most facade feature of the building as compared to the previous venues is its simplicity, making it a project-oriented building. And the theme “Myth/Fable” is also the most concrete as compare to all the previous themes. From this, we predicted that it would be
Take advantage of the target building ＜ Video expression
However, instead of just watching “3D expression” which became the general projection mapping expression, I would love to see other softer and various videos or methods.
Especially when thinking about new expressions and identity, instead of being binded up with existing things, one should break the existing work and find a new direction to update that expression. This time, we aim for the creators to create works that are not binded to the mindset of “This is a projection mapping expression”, but instead to increase the video expression and beauty.
As a result, rich representation variations appeared and it became a very stimulating competition, an inspiration for the future. And, as the theme 「Myth/Fable」 has a more concrete theme as compare to the past, it allows creators to create something that firmly tell the meaning as compare to the ambiguous meaning of past works. Including the point of How to express it as video?, the important point of the competition is that creators have to convey their works in a time span of 1 minute, not only focusing on the visual appearance but also the composition and directing power.
From the 125 entries from 42 different countries, we have selected 19 works to get into the finalist. And, 5 of us, including me as the judges, watched the projection mapping of the works on the building, strictly reviewed the works and would like to announce the results here.
Result list
※「Title」Team（Country）
Grand Prize：「The Nine Colored Deer」LiCheng（China）
Second Prize：「Ice Winter Sakura」ArtZebs Gallery（Ukraine）
Jury Prize：「Stag」Fluid（Hungary）
Miyazaki Governor Prize：「KAMISHIBAI」DECIDEKIT（Thailand）
Audience Prize：「The Nine Colored Deer」LiCheng（China）
Special Prize：「Chaos」High Files Visuals（Italy）
Special Prize：「Quimera」AVA Animation & Visual Arts（Mexico）
Grand Prize
「The Nine Colored Deer」LiCheng（China）
・Movie ⇒ https://youtu.be/ra4VfNQFNbw
This time, a double prize of the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize were awarded to the work 「The Nine Colored Deer」 by Li Cheng from China.
As well as having excellent image production techniques, his work presented a world with beautiful design and was full of emotions that moved the human mind. Projection mapping is a matter of proposition to “surprise a person”, but there are not many examples which carefully approached human emotions like this work. Therefore, it received high reviews from the judges. The high degree of perfection makes people want to watch it over and over again.
Second Prize
「Ice Winter Sakura」ArtZebs Gallery（Ukraine）
・Movie ⇒ https://youtu.be/IL1WfL2yvD0
The second prize was awarded to the work 「Ice Winter Sakura」 by ArtZebs Gallery from Ukraine, who managed to get into the finalists on a second go. Although they were a little weak on the theme, their simple 3D expression and focus on design, drew out impressive scenes that makes it seems like a myth.
Jury Prize
「Stag」Fluid（Hungary）
・Movie ⇒ https://youtu.be/S7CCwdIkRKo
The Jury’s prize was awarded to the work 「stag」 by Fluid from Hungary. It was a work that remained very impressive, penetrating a unique and simple world view and design, without using the recent main stream of 3D expression at all. They only used 2D expression and the color gold, but it was a superb work that makes a rich sense of color and space.
Miyazaki Governor Prize
「KAMISHIBAI」DECIDEKIT（Thailand）
・Movie ⇒ https://youtu.be/D1S5QtPAPQc
Miyazaki Governor Prize was awarded to the work 「Kamishibai」 by DecideKit from Thailand. Their work shows various myths around the world drawn beautifully. It was also quite popular among the audience. Their work took into account the audience and Japan, becoming an entertainment that people do not get tired of.
Audience Prize
「The Nine Colored Deer」LiCheng（China）
・Movie ⇒ https://youtu.be/ra4VfNQFNbw
Audience prize was awarded as a double prize with the grand prize. It was very rare the same work captures the heart of both the judges and audience, showing that this work is really excellent.
Although the judges discussed about which works to select, there were still many works that the judges were interested in giving an award to as the level of the works were high. Therefore, two extra works were awarded prizes from the judges.
Special Prize
「Chaos」High Files Visuals（Italy）
・Movie ⇒ https://youtu.be/JXVUY2huJXg
First is to the work 「chaos」 by High Files Visuals from Italy. It was a work of quality that I have not seen very often which is expressed in black and white. The evaluation went up due to that challenging and fresh point.
Special Prize
「Quimera」AVA Animation & Visual Arts（Mexico）
・Movie ⇒ https://youtu.be/KaSzxWi1ceY
Another prize went to a regular of this competition, AVA Animation and Visual Arts from Mexico with their artwork 「Quimera」. It was a work of South America’s design created with a beautiful 3DCG. Its beauty and strength leaves a strong impression to the judges and thus, was evaluated as one of the top works.
I only wrote comments on the winning works, but there were many other great works and many that I wanted to give the prizes too as well.
The venue of the 8th competition was already announced at the competition, but it will be held at Odawara City in Kanagawa Prefecture. And the Odawara Castle, a symbolic existence of Japanese architecture will be the motif of the projection! This is going to be the most difficult for video expression. How are creators going to face the detailed and complicated architectural specifications due to the existence of the Japanese roof? Just by putting a simple video is not going to work well as it would be disoriented by the architecture. Therefore, how the creators will approach the architecture will be a big challenge.
Creators would need a completely different approach as compare to Miyazaki. Their imagination and experience to design works by combining both the architecture and video will be a challenge.
Finally, I would like to thank all of the creators who participated in the competition this time and would be happy to continue to draw a new page of projection mapping together.
Thank you very much.
1minute Projection Mapping Producer
Michiyuki Ishita（PMAJ Representative）