Architecture & Monuments · 2018 · Moscow, Russia

Synergy — Bolshoi Theatre

‘Synergy’ won the Art Vision contest 2018 on the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow — a projection mapping built with deep learning and AI techniques such as deep dream and style transfer.

The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow covered in a dark, textured 3D projection mapping with glowing cracks and colours Loads the player from Vimeo (do-not-track mode).

RE:SORB’s first 3D mapping on the Bolshoi Theatre won the international Art Vision contest at the Circle of Light festival in Moscow in 2018.

Fitting the theme of synergy between the human and the technical world, ‘Synergy’ used deep learning and artificial intelligence techniques: pattern recognition, deep dream and style transfer. The studio’s GPU render farms were not only rendering 3D animation this time, but also running neural networks to ‘dream’ on the animation and add a layer of complexity and magic.

The show uses the full width of the theatre’s façade — the eight-column portico, the quadriga of Apollo and the wings — as a layered stage that is broken open, rebuilt and set in motion in sync with the score. The studio returned the following year and won again with ‘DUAL’.

Credits

  • Concept and direction: John Tettenborn, Uli Buder
  • Machine learning and Python programming: John Tettenborn
  • 3D animation: John Tettenborn; additional animation: Uli Buder, Bernhard Hoffmann, Laura Nickel
  • Production: RE:SORB