Signs of the Times - October 2016 - 71

tation. Rather than displaying interactive software, the 50 Fremont screen relies on a series of naturebased landscapes composed and composited with a collaboration between between two world-class video effect companies, Obscura Digital (San Francisco) and Fusion CI Studios (Los Angeles). Fusion CI's video FX supervisor, Mark Stesiuk, said the idea for the wall was to bring the enormous expressions of nature into 50 Fremont's minimalist, hard-edged lobby. From this inspiration, the companies collaborated on a series of nature-based landscapes, such as a full landscape of the nearby Muir Woods that spans the length of the lobby. Another lobby wall landscape that has everyone talking is a waterfall scene with runoff splashing over and around each of the elevator bay entrances. The waterfall spillage is realistic enough (all digital - just like in the movies) that when viewers stand in the lobby, they almost expect to get splashed. Several smartphone users have videoed the waterfall and posted it on YouTube and Vimeo where it has garnered millions of views, reposts and shares. The 50 Fremont video wall was installed by Arrow Sign (Oakland, CA). Digital canvas and public space The integration of artistic video walls in lobbies merges architecture and digital media into a new realm of pedestrian interactions. Lobbies are transformed into dynamic art galleries, and for those passing through on the way to or from work, they create a moment of pause, allowing busy pedestrians an unexpected encounter with art. San Francisco's efforts to open such lobbies to the digital domain could very well become a trend - architects, developers, LED manufacturers and sign installers all sharing the redefinition of architectural public space as a digital canvas for cultural and communal experiences. n Lobby Walls as a Landscape For Digital Canvasses As digital signage continues to integrate itself within the architectural space, it has redefined that space as more than just a building. Through its visual presence, it has become a media mirror of our culture and commerce. In certain instances, buildings are covered stem to stern with video screens as a means of redefining architecture as an advertising or branding space. Aside from a building's exterior façade, the lobby space has also become fertile territory for digital signage, imparting whatever messages are appropriate within that passage. Previous ST coverage (November 2009) has noted other lobby video installations, such as the vast BARCO video wall within the lobby of the Comcast Headquarters in Philadelphia. In Times Square, the 11-story Reuters vertical message center descends the building and ends its trail in (you guessed it) the lobby. In downtown Manhattan, media poet Jenny Halter uses an LED message center in the lobby of the 7 World Trade Center to stream poignant text across its screens, greeting workers on their daily passage through that lobby space. While lobbies allow people in and out of their buildings, a new role is emerging, expanding that space into more of a dynamic digital media platform, giving passersby a moment to stop and soak in the display's text or visual decrees imparting its observations of the life around us. The days of hanging tapestries on lobby walls are far behind us, unless, of course, they're digital tapestries. SIGNS OF THE TIMES www.signweb.com 71 http://www.signweb.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signs of the Times - October 2016