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See bugs jam on digital signage

Perfomance art, digital signage and 'insects' create a unique art/video installation in L.A.

April 5, 2013 by Christopher Hall — w, t

A performance art and multimedia installation in Los Angeles is bringing together electronic music, animation and digital signage technology in a distinctly L.A. way.

According to The Sonos Studio, which describes itself as "an acoustically-designed gallery that celebrates music listening," the installation called "Bugs" features "a bizarre band of insects brought to life by filmmaker Tom Kuntz in collaboration with electronic musician Dan Deacon."

Six large monoliths containing TV screens positioned in a circle immerse visitors in the visual and aural show. Kuntz designed the bugs, Deacon composed a wealth of loops for each, and then [visual effects company] The Mill LA worked its magic with animation and created software to generate randomized playback for the ensembles' many loops. The final result is a perpetually changing installation with literally millions of variations. It is at once bizarre, comedic, and utterly fascinating ...

The video portion of the installation was made possible using BrightSign digital signage media players and residential-grade plasma TVs installed in six custom-built monoliths along with the Sonos PLAYBAR for merging video and sound.

Arielle Davis, head of production at The Mill LA, said her company worked as creative and technical collaborators with the composer and filmmaker, calling the project "really interesting" and "a challenge."

"So the question came to us, 'What's the best way to display the content?'" she said. "A big key thing for Tom [Kuntz] and the composer, Dan Deacon, has to do with synchronization, so keeping the beat on time, with no latency in audio and video playback, as well as having this continuously play for a month with randomization features of the content so that every time you see it, it's a different musical and visual experience."

The team at The Mill LA designed the project so that each monolith has a dedicated character per monolith, with the audio tied to the video being shown so that there are specific tracks for specific movements, she said. "What we worked with BrightSign on was developing some randomization scripts that are specific to our project, so that the combination or permutation of events that takes place is so huge that essentially if you were there watching it full-time for a month you would then probably repeat your experience, but every person who comes in should have an individual and unique experience."

Davis said this experience using digital signage for a project was a first for The Mill LA. But it likely won't be a last.

"I think site-specific content is increasingly popular in different ways, from a traditional sense in a museum or a retail store, and I think everybody is looking to display things differently and specific to their site, so I think the need for it is going to come up again."

The "Bugs" exhibit will runs through May 5.

Watch a video of the April 4 opening, posted to Twitter by @pagejeter, below:

(Cover photo taken from Jeter's video.)

Learn more about digital signage content management.

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