Sho Hsieh Interactive Experience Designer
All work

Kaohsiung Light Year

跨百光年 ran across the whole Kaohsiung bay area. My part was one show within it, 奇想音浪: the projection on the outside of the Kaohsiung Music Center. It is the largest surface I have worked on, and the only one outdoors.

The show from the front, recorded on site at real speed.
Show
奇想音浪, part of 跨百光年
Year
2020–21
Surface
Kaohsiung Music Center facade
Recognition
MUSE Design Awards Platinum 2021, awarded to the event
What I did, on 奇想音浪 only
  • The script for the projection
  • Projection tests with the vendors
  • Discussing and developing the imagery
  • Producing the imagery
  • The final on-site test
What I did not
  • The rest of 跨百光年 across the bay area, including the stage, the lasers and the fireworks
  • Projection hardware
  • The building
Studio
  • 23Design

A building is not a screen

Every other surface in my work sits in a dark room that was built for it. This one is a concert venue with a harbour behind it. The low facade rolls and folds, and the tower above it is a stack of open hexagons that light passes straight through.

So the imagery is made for the shape of the building. Colour runs the length of the low facade and climbs into the hexagons, and the show's motifs are drawn from the Wanshan petroglyphs of Maolin.

Pink and blue light across the facade and up into the hexagonal tower at night.
Warm yellow and orange planes covering the low facade.
Concentric hexagon line drawings projected on the low facade.
Blue light streaming along the facade toward the tower.
Large drawn figures projected across the facade.

Testing the mask

Nothing about the shape can be trusted until it is on the building, so the projection mask and the motion were tested on site with the vendors before the show.

Glowing line hexagons tested on the tower at dusk, the city's towers behind.
Motion test on the hexagons.
Two hexagons filled with blue and pink light during a test, the city at dusk beyond.
Mask test.
The tower with several hexagons lit orange and blue during a test.
Mask test on the tower.
A control screen showing the hexagon masks being aligned.
The masks at the desk.

The night itself

On the night, the projection shared the building with a stage, lasers and a crowd, and ran through to the countdown into 2021.

Happy New Year 2021 projected across the facade in purple light, the stage lit below.
Into 2021.
Blue light on the facade and tower above the lit stage.
The show during the event, with the stage below.