Lori H. Ersolmaz | Poetic Films

Notes from: The 16th Annual Digital Graffiti Festival
+ Norris Community Center

In June 2022, I began thinking about the concept for my seventh film in the Good Natured. series—Cyanotypes. The concept got its start from seeing deep blue images of British algae plants (seaweed) photographed by botanist Anna Atkins in the mid 1800s. Atkins used a photographic blueprinting process called cyanotypes to document over 400 unique plant specimens for a multi-volume printed publication. I immediately recognized these bold, high contrast images would be perfect for projection mapping. I wanted to create animations of the seaweed cyanotypes as if they were floating underwater paired with water scenes, mostly filmed at Delnor-Wiggins State Park in North Naples. There needed to be a strong emphasis on music to time the animations, but those were the only details I had in the beginning stages. Five months later I worked on the film, which took nearly three months to complete. Ironically, and without realizing it, I selected two specimens of sargassum out of 400 seaweed types for the animations. This particular seaweed has recently been reported to be the largest massive bloom ever noted and beginning to come to shore on the east coast of Florida with negative ramifications for beachgoers.

I had been hoping to bring my film projections to downtown Naples after two years in North Naples at Mercato. In 2022, I exchanged correspondence with several Naples officials because I needed authorization to project onto buildings downtown. An opening came when Doug Mitchell, Recreation Supervisor of the Norris Community Center Parks, Recreation, and Facilities Department contacted me after his boss passed my promotional package to him. We met and Doug continues to be supportive about collaborating on projects with Naples Parks and Recreation. I also met with the newly incoming Executive Director of United Arts Collier, Elysia Dawn (see sidebar below with a mention in Gulfshore Life article about Dawn and the UAC, where I am a member) who was intrigued by my work and we collaborated on the first 2023 UAC event —Love for the Arts. The event was held at the Norris Community Center near Cambier Park across from Naples City Hall.

Good Natured. Cyanotypes was crafted specifically for the Norris Community Center, which is a real gem in downtown Naples. To get ready for the event, I tested the draft film on four consecutive Monday evenings, the only night the Gulfshore Playhouse was dark. Doug Mitchell and I discussed several options for the projection mapping with the amphitheater side being the most dramatic, but also most challenging. The architecture has two large peaks on each side of the amphitheater stage and the building itself is approximately 25-30 feet high. The final draft of Good Natured. Cyanotypes has three parts, the seaweed animations, film footage of water, and a woman dancing at the edge of the shoreline—all with fast cut edits to the music.

The testing stage is often when I re-edit the film to ensure the best image representation on a building or object canvas. It was then that I decided to mirror the dancing woman so she appeared in both building peaks. That was the trickiest aspect, not only for the film editing due to music timing, but also for each projection performance the women had to appear directly in the peaks. That was a tall order considering the projector was put-up and taken-down each night and placement of the projector was critical to projection mapping success of this particular film and building.

At about the same time, submissions to the Internationally renowned Digital Graffiti Festival was looming. I had first learned about the festival when I began projection mapping in 2020. I thought it was an amazing place to gather more information about what other artists were doing in the medium. I felt strongly about Good Natured. Cyanotypes due to the positive feedback I received after several showings at the Norris Community Center. I submitted the film to the festival and received notice as a finalist for the 16th Digital Graffiti Festival, out of over 300 submissions. I was absolutely thrilled!

Digital Graffiti provides a special and specific context for the visual intersection of art and architecture as the nighttime festival illuminates the town with the latest in design, animation, and projection technologies. I couldn’t wait to see how the best technologies would illuminate my films, as locally I am pushing the projectors to the limits of what they can do. Digital Graffiti features two evenings of innovation and inspiration, with works of projection mapping, generative art, experimental short films, and animation—as well as sound, motion, and light-responsive installations.

Curator John Colette views the festival as an opportunity for the audience to engage with art outside of the traditional gallery space in a presentation that “makes the art much more of a living experience,” allowing the audience to “get deeper into the work” outside of the confines structured by “what we think we should do in that (gallery) environment.”

Digital Graffiti 2023 took place May 19-20th with a large audience of digital art lovers and over 50 International artists, filmmakers, musicians, and techies. The intimate courtyard streets where one might imagine they were in Greece or Morocco were not only an excellent backdrop for the art, but also created openings for heartfelt conversations from the audience about what they saw and enjoyed about the work. There was an abundance of inspirational artists of all ages illustrating the diverse future of digital media.

The engagement between art, architecture, and audience is transformative, creating an immersive and interactive art projection experience that is entirely unique to the Digital Graffiti Festival, named as one of the top “24 Unconventional Art Destinations Around the World” by National Geographic.

Over the years my films have been official film festival selections, and sometimes winners. I’ve traveled to participate in some festivals, but by far Digital Graffiti has been one of my favorite experiences. The festival team was stellar in every part of the production process and the audience made me feel like a celebrity! It was invigorating to talk with other artists about their work and was an exciting two-night, museum quality outdoor-projection delight that will forever live on in my memory.

~Lori H. Ersolmaz