STRIPTEASE, TORONTO |
Wednesday 04 Apr 2012
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The entrance installation at Toronto's annual interior design show, IDS12, RAW architecture's StripTease seduced show-goers with a dramatic curtain comprised of more than 1300 individual strips of felt, doubling as a canvas for interactive digital projections.
The vision of award winning industrial designer Mark Tholen and Roland Rom Colthoff, principal architect at RAW, StripTease required of a mass collaboration between some unlikely partners; Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc., GestureTek Inc., Acid Integrations,The Felt Store and dozens of design students who contributed to the build of the 3700+ pound installation in an offsite warehouse.
StripTease reflected the show's theme "How Do You Live" by reminding people of the physical process of arriving home, an experience unique to each individual and each residence. "StripTease was intended as a soft, warm and welcoming gesture," said Roland Rom Colthoff.
While architects work in a digital, virtual world the materials they use are prosaic; bricks mortar and concrete. "For the entranceway installation, we wanted to give the space a sensual quality instead of the distant intellectual feel that high-concept design often creates," said Rom Colthoff.
Christie'sleading-edge digital technology enabled RAW to work through the challenges of projecting onto the felt canvas. And it was their Christie® MicroTiles® product that presented an interactive environment to engage the public, further expressing the complimentary nature of the digital high-end with the lowbrow quality of felt.Using camera's to capture show-goers, partners GestureTek Inc. and Acid Integrations developed content that allowed the public to sweep away images, revealing themselves on the dramatic two-storey felt screen.