Seekago

February 27, 2018

Perhaps we were meant? To live in breaths that hold life, passion, sorrow, and joy. They opened the door and it all started… Seekago is five experimental films that in their entirety tell a love story of two characters, the Traveler and the Bagged Woman. Each film represents a phase of life, beginning with birth and death, into journey and experience, to love and sacrifice, to survival and community, and finally transcendence into a world beyond. However, each film in the series also works independently, commenting on areas of human ecology. There is no narration that accompanies the films, but the action, the set, the costume, the sounds, and the camera angles are what tell the story. The viewer sees and understands what is in front of them, but how it plays is mystifying. The audience loses self as the subconscious starts to attach memory and moments to the sounds and imagery. SEEKAGO is Breathing, Asphalt, The Chicken and the Coyote, Feast, and Flight.

BR E A THING (2011)

Breathing is a short experimental thriller that is intended to produce a specific emotional state within the viewer. The concept of Breathing is very simple. There are sixteen performers that are sitting on chairs that are on tables, in a grid formation, breathing inside plastic bags. When they inhale, a gap or black hole appears where their mouths are, and when they exhale the bag resumes its original state. The breathing is rhythmic and hypnotic, as if they are sleeping inside their cocoons or pods. As time passes, a shot rings out, one of the bags fills with blood, and the performer dies. There is no disturbance in the breathing of the other pods that are still living. It is as if it is normal that a life has been taken or a life has been born. In Breathing we meet the the two main Characters the Traveler and the Bagged Woman.

a s p h a l t (2012)

Asphalt is a life journey; it represents the exploration and experience that one gains through traveling, trying out new ideas, and overcoming obstacles. Asphalt tells this journey of life through the use of the roads, processions, One-Point Perspective, and intersections, Asphalt works as segue between the world of Breathing and The world of The Chicken and the Coyote. It is the intersection of the two worlds as the Traveler takes the Bagged Woman from one world to the next. Asphalt is shot as an observational documentary

The CHICKEN and the COYOTE (2012)

The Chicken and the Coyote is a love story and performance piece between a Chicken and a Coyote. When the Coyote reveals himself to the Chicken, there is a moment of fear but the excitement overtakes as they embrace in a passionate dance of love/lust. As the dance climaxes, the Coyote’s instincts overtake him and he devours the Chicken. The Chicken’s life is not lived in vain, but has been fulfilled by sacrificing herself so that the cycle of life could continue. The Opossum is also a character that has traveled into this world, he is a witness to the love and struggle between the Chicken and the Coyote

F E A S T (2013)

FEAST starts with a shot that pulls back to unveil pockets of birds that have collected to feast on the remains of an animal. Bird masks and wings adorn the performers. Scarcity is abundant and abundance is scarce. All will have food but some will have more scrumptious parts than others. It’s a paralleled world pulling in both the animal and human reactions to the fear of starvation and the will to survive. Eventually all will be fed. With their bellies full, contentment sets in, which results into a beautiful chorus, celebrating life, and each other. FEAST is a commentary on the importance of a healthy ecology by integrating the human relationship with the natural, social, and built environments through the representation of Scavenger bird behavior tactics and human social feeding behaviors.

F l i g h t (2013)

Is the last film in the series of SEEKAGO and is the unity and transcendence of the Bagged Woman and the Traveler.

OBLSK

Mannequin Mapping

February 27, 2018February 27, 2018

Co-creation

Bagged

February 27, 2018February 27, 2018

Co-creation

Tetris: Play Big

February 27, 2018February 27, 2018

Independent’s Day 2016

For Columbus’ 9th annual Independent’s Day Festival in Franklinton, OBLSK worked with a team of local architects to provide unique lighting and projection graphics for several structures at the center of the festival.

Mykel Terada – CDL Architects

Julie Jent – Ten Penny Design

Emma Conway – Chute Gerdeman

Justin Paul-Villanueva – The Limited

Brian Polgar – OSU Lecturer

Brandon Doherty – OSU student

Bonnie Babb-Cheshul – Freelance graphic designer

Jim Hayes – JDS Companies/City Space

Elise Loeb – Wholly Craft

Kurt Miller – Meyers + Associates Architects

Co-creation

Entangled: Immersive Projection Mapping Installation

February 26, 2018February 27, 2018

Experience Entangled; the immersive experience by OBLSK Interactive. Explore haunting and beautiful environments as you adventure through the tableau. Through motion graphics, projection mapping, and Lenticular technology used in the sculptural design, Entangled will enthrall audiences with a fantastic dreamscape of optical illusion, storytelling, and unforgettable imagery.

This project consists of a sculptural installation designed to create an immersive environment in which simple three dimensional shapes (square columns) are used

as a projection surface. The piece becomes a location for viewers to have virtual experiences. The possible environments are endless. They could be, for example, a dark enchanted forest, an alien landscape, or a more playful haunted house.

The structured consists of sixteen 18″ by 18” square large columns that are 10′ tall. The participant can explore the installation by walking through and in between the columns. Each column has projection mapped video on all four sides so what the participant sees and experience is changed based on their position and the direction they face.

Co-creation

HERD: WALLS

December 9, 2017February 27, 2018

W A L L S

created by Kate Spacek and eve Warnock

WALLS, a project of HERD, uses modular set design, large-scale interactive installations, and contemporary performance to forge connections across diverse communities, rethink space and human flow within space, and catalyze play as the building blocks for social innovation. The project is based on research of animal herding behaviors and corralling systems, urban planning and design, and fundamental psychology of interpersonal interactions and co-creation. WALLS has been and continues to be a multi-phase, scenario-driven experimental approach to revealing findings that further the work.

WALLS requires a large open space (e.g., public market, warehouse, convention center, festival tent, black box theater, museum, or “dead zone” that could be brought to life with this piece), ideally 12m x 12m (40’x40’), at a minimum. Large, lightweight fabric walls of varying sizes hang from above, dropping almost to the ground, and can swivel 360 degrees. Level of transparency can vary, and some walls may have windows. Strong magnetic strips provide mechanism to attach and detach the walls to/from one another, creating a veritable life-size “construction play set” of spatial designs that can be changed quickly and easily, over and over again. Weatherproof materials and sturdy construction withstand the unknown impacts of spontaneous play. The modular design allows for the walls to act as dividers, intimacy-creators, set design elements, projection screens, and tools for social experiment.

WALLS is part performance, part interactive playground. A series of theatrical experiments can be incorporated to test predetermined hypotheses of human interaction and response. For instance, for a prior installation, we created a bisected, rectangular space that referenced both animal pens and small city apartments. Audience members reacted to choreographed shifts in spatial dimensions, lighting, window access, and sounds. The results of these performances add to our research and birth new curiosities to explore. We also facilitate workshop environments, using the installation to explore ideas of community-driven space-making in urban locales.

Outside of performances and workshops, the installation serves as a hands-on environment for creative play and community building. Adults and children alike can explore and redesign the spaces, playing for the sake of play, or see their own living and working spaces differently. Use of light, shadow, sound, sensors, and 3D projection mapping activates an otherworldly fantastical playground, triggering human desires to play with and move within the walls.

Play infiltrates every aspect of HERD and its projects. We use play researcher Dr. Stuart Brown’s defining characteristics of play as perpetual guidance for our work: Play (1) is voluntary, (2) is seemingly purposeless, (3) is fun, (4) creates a diminished sense of time, (5) allows the player freedom from self-consciousness, and (6) allows for spontaneity.

Play is a biological necessity, yet a largely untapped resource that facilitates openness, connectedness, innovation, and physical and mental well-being. Published research proves these benefits, but it has been our own primary experiences that confirm the significance of creating time and spaces for humans to playfully engage. HERD: WALLS rejuvenates wonder and whimsy while tapping into the freedoms of human interactions, movements, and collective imaginations.

Co-creation

OBLSK: HMS Host: Wakka Wakka Productions: Land Grant Brewery

January 10, 2017February 27, 2018

OBLSK has been busy over the last months creating media for national and international companies. We are movin’ and groovin’ makin’ art for the masses.

We just recently worked with HMS Host in the state of Delaware, working on a series of time lapse training videos. We were lucky enough to work with Davinia Roberts and Paul Cook with ZenGenius.

OBLSK also just finished up an animation for the Off Broadway production MADE IN CHINA by Wakka Wakka Productions. MADE IN CHINA is A darkly comedic puppet musical inspired by true events, MADE IN CHINA is a fantastical exploration of human rights, consumerism and American-Chinese relations as told through the unlikely love story between an odd middle-aged American woman and her Chinese ex-pat neighbor. January11-February 19 at 59E59 Theaters, NYC. Click HERE for Tickets

Check out our projection advertisement that we did for Land Grant Brewery in November! Cool Right!? We can’t wait to do more of this type of work as we hone our skills to really produce something exceptional.

We have also been busy working with ZenGenius, A visual merchandising company based out of Columbus Ohio on their G’litter Done Campaign. Let’s work together to keep our earth Clean!

Finally OBLSK was asked to represent Creatives in this series of Creative Videos which was presented at the International Retail Design Conference in Montreal. Let’s REPRESENT!

OBLSK consists of a team of artists, inventors, and designers who come together to create engaging interactive installations, finely crafted imagery, and powerful multi-sensory experiences.

Our areas of expertise include video production, large-scale projection mapping, interactive electronic and mechanical engineering, visual design, costume and set design, brand development, and more. We collaborate with clients ready to pioneer new ways of engaging their audience; creative-minded organizations interested in developing their brand using art and technology.