In 2017, Changsha was selected by UNESCO and became the first city in China to be awarded the title of "Media Art Capital" in the world. Six years later, based on the new requirements of the development of the times, Changsha once again put forward the goal of "building a global R&D center city" and is moving in a new direction.
Under the new wave of research and development, the old advantageous industries have undergone brand-new changes, which has also given unexpected support to the new research and development ecology.
"What science and technology endows media art is the second Renaissance." According to Director Li Yan and his team, who settled in the Malanshan Video Cultural and Creative Industrial Park, the breakthroughs brought by scientific research to media art are greater than the public imagined. , Stage beauty and other positions have achieved a complete subversion.
As a new generation of literary and art directors from Hunan to the international stage, Li Yan and her team experienced the process of Changsha becoming the capital of media art. During international exchanges, they gradually realized the gap in media art between regions. , and the role technology plays in it.
When Changsha announced the establishment of a global R&D center city, Li Yan's team's immersive Miaojing wedding banquet theater "Deben Illusion" had just finished its audition. In this new drama with the Deben Grand Canyon as the natural curtain, Li Yan's team demonstrated their industry's top level in the use of sound, light, electricity and other technological methods. When night falls, a "water moon" with a diameter of 8 meters rises slowly from the center of the stage through the means of digital media art. The spectacle of the three moons "in the sky, in the water, and in real scene" is praised by the media as a magical scene. Art.
"The wave of scientific research has brought media art to a new continent. We must completely rethink the entire media art industry, starting from the new changes brought about by research and development." Li Yan said.
1. The new mode of immersive performance viewing, the new creative power liberated by scientific research
Juzizhoutou, the Water Workers Cultural Palace built in 1954, as a preserved building with historical value, finally ushered in the value of its use after many years, as the performance venue of the 5D youth theater "Qia Classmate Boy".
The biggest difference between this director Li Yan's polished work on the building listed as a cultural relic protection unit in Changsha and the traditional viewing mode lies in its immersive experience. The audience and the actors are in the play at the same time. With the control of sound, light and electricity by means of technology, time turns back to the vigorous and prosperous years on April 1, 1917.
"In the past, everyone did not consider the audience and actors in the same spatial state when creating, and the drama would only appear in a 180° mirror frame in front of the audience. Because the technical means at that time could only support the stage in front of them." Li Yan explained.
But in the performance of "Qia Classmate Boy", technology has evolved into art, and it has become a show. The change of light and shadow and the use of organs enable the conflict of the drama to be staged around the audience, and the advancement of the drama can follow the movement of the audience. The so-called "entering the theater is entering the play", "people are in the play, and the play follows people".
This effective integration of technology is the characteristic of Li Yan's director team. Li Yan believes that the breakthroughs in science and technology bring about changes in media art, not in the improvement of a certain part of perception, but in the breakthrough of concepts and the transformation of models. The advancement of technology has liberated the creativity of creators. For example, in "Qia Classmate Boy", the traditional viewing mode has come to an end in design, but the immersive drama design is still a fertile ground full of imagination. .
"In other words, each of our designs may be a sample of similar dramas in the world." For example, the illusion project that Li Yan's team is currently promoting is to use the latest technology to create a drama on historical sites in various parts of China. The scenes of thousands of years ago are revived, allowing audiences from all over the world to travel back in time and experience the cultural features of this place thousands of years ago.
In "Deben Illusion", which has just finished the audition, the natural transition between the auditorium and the stage, and the combination of "performance" and "banquet", these performance methods are different from the traditional viewing mode, which proves the emergence of the team's creativity. The novel experience also surprised the audience, but how to achieve it became a new problem during the rehearsal process.
After the creativity is released, technology has become the core ability that needs to be improved urgently.
2. In the changed media art, research and development capabilities have become the core competitiveness
Li Min, as the director of stage art in Li Yan's team, can feel the stage art industry most clearly. Under the challenges brought by scientific research and development, its definition is constantly being expanded.
To put it simply, there are more comprehensive disciplines required for the post of dance beauty. In addition to the traditional lighting set and clothing, more digital media art, interactive scene design, and original research and development based on performance needs have been added. Under the new technical conditions and requirements, the original content has also undergone subversive changes. For example, lighting, the original lighting effect is the embellishment and foil of the stage; today's light, with the blessing of holographic imaging technology, can directly form a new stage.
In the fantasy project of Li Yan's team, out of the protection of the original site, this technology has become the key to constructing the scene. For example, in the latest Deben Illusion project, the predecessor of the new theater is the building of the Miao Village itself, but under the empowerment of sound, light and electricity, it has a new look and regains its use value as a theater.
In Li Min's view, with the development of scientific research, the upper limit of what stage art can do has been raised, and the creative techniques and ways to achieve effects have become broader. For example, in the original stage design, using traditional art installations takes a long time to install and is expensive, and most of the installations are disposable. However, with the empowerment of modern technological means such as sound, light, and electricity, the original project has greatly improved work efficiency and reduced costs. At the 2022 "Belt and Road" Youth Creativity and Heritage Forum, the short film "Originally Changsha Box Shadow" created by Li Yan's team surprised youth representatives from all over the world, and the set was only 3 hours in total.
According to Li Min, in terms of interaction design, Li Yan's team is currently at the forefront, and many designs and effects are original. The existing technology cannot meet the needs of customization, so it has begun to configure its own media art research center to carry out research and development of special technologies.
For example, in the fantasy series, director Li Yan creatively combined "acting and banquet" for presentation, and adopted a self-developed digital catering scene transmission system. Equipped with digital imaging technology, according to the expression of the emotion and content of the program, the corresponding transmission system programming is designed to realize the visual presentation of the scene and banquet during the meal.
At present, in addition to interaction design, the team also uses self-developed technologies more frequently in visual presentation and other aspects. For example, at the 2023 "Belt and Road" Youth Creativity and Heritage Forum held in June, Li Yan's director team created a media art fantasy poetry meeting "How can there be poetry in Xiaoxiang". According to She Lei, the visual director, the presentation of the 3D effect in the program comes from the team's self-developed naked-eye 3D holographic giant screen system. Suspended holographic projection display.
3. When the capital of media art meets the global R&D center city, the new ecology of "1+1>2" industry development
For Li Yan's team, the wave of scientific research is surging at the right time.
On the one hand, scientific research capabilities have become a core competitiveness of the media art industry. However, for a company or team, the improvement of scientific research is destined to be a process of breaking ground. Director Li Yan said: "The effect of the program is very different. The wonderful scene that the audience sees on the stage is often made by the audience. Countless failure cases under the stage are piled up." Only by standing on the basis of scientific research can we better invest resources in creation.
my country's science and technology and media art have always been closely integrated. The best case is in the previous Spring Festival Gala. Since 2012, the stage of the Chinese Spring Festival Gala has widely used holographic projection technology. By 2020, technologies such as 5G, AI, VR, AR, and naked-eye 3D have all been used in the Spring Festival Gala.
This inherent advantage enables Chinese art creators to stand on the shoulders of giants to create. The most famous peak on the shoulders is the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games: Using the new technology of digital control ignition, 29 flame footprints stepped on Yongdingmen, Tiananmen, the Forbidden City, and finally the Bird's Nest, heralding the arrival of the Olympic Games; 147 meters long, The 22-meter-wide ink LED display screen constitutes the Olympic stage with the highest technological content and the largest area since the previous Olympic Games.
Li Yan's team, as a leading team in China, maintains a good and close cooperative relationship with experts in the design of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games and artist teams at home and abroad. The Malanshan Video Cultural and Creative Industrial Park, which is currently settled, is an important center of Changsha's cultural industry, and it is also the core area for Changsha to create the integration of "culture" and "technology". Today, Changsha's independent research and development is booming again, and the advantages of talents and resources are gathered in Changsha. Exchanges and discussions between various industries are in full swing, and new concepts and ideas emerge in an endless stream. For the media art industry, which can be integrated into everything, it is equivalent to standing on the wind to create, and its self-research ability can also make great progress in this process. In the words of Director Li Yan, "Changsha's media art has a bright future and promises a lot."
On the other hand, just like the rotten visual feast of the Beijing Olympics, which attracted the attention of the world at that time, media art will become the best display window for the level of scientific research. Due to the innovative use of technical means, like the Illusion series, the stage has become able to use local materials, protect the original site, restore history, and then travel to the past of a city.
With the advancement of scientific research, media art has a better integration with the cultural and tourism industry. Under the new expression brought by new scientific research, cultural tourism and consumption formats have been boosted, exploring a new path for the upgrading and transformation of local cultural tourism consumption formats, and it is also the best publicity for the latest scientific and technological achievements.
Li Yan revealed that the focus of the team will continue to be on the integration of "culture" and "technology", using the latest technology and expression to interpret the local cultural customs covered by the heavy history. In addition to "Deben Illusion", which has just completed the audition, the team's creative plans for this year include the immersive Chu style aesthetic theater "Bamboo Sea Illusion" about Qu Yuan, and the immersive 5D courtyard poetry and wine illusion theater "Qiongtai Illusion".
Source: Songuo Finance