Object Specific Cinema. Stylistic Elements of Videomapping in the Work of the Macula Group

Projection mapping is a visual process where a moving picture is projected onto the surface of real objects in a creative manner. This phenomenon started to appear widely in galleries and music clubs about ten years ago, but it has grown very quickly. Today's large-scale projection mappings are a common part of various brand campaigns and city celebrations.
The main objective of this study is to describe how the projection mapping style works. It considers four basic elements of projection mapping - moving imagery, sound, projected objects, and surrounding space. However, it focuses primarily on relations between moving imagery and projected objects. This is because projection mapping differs from other kinds of moving images by its object specificity. It is based on a precise bond between a moving picture and a mapped object. This bond need not be limited to the instances when the projected image is accurately visually adjacent to the shape and contours of the mapped object. Projection mapping can also draw on all historical, cultural, or social contexts of mapped objects in a similar way that site-specific art draws on the identity of a given place. Therefore, similarly to the adjective "site-specific", we could consider projection mapping as an object-specific cinema.
The work of the Czech visual group Macula serves as a case study. Specifically, it is their work between 2009 and 2014, when the main members of the group were Amar Mulabegović, Dan Gregor, and Ondřej Skala. As part of their projection mapping style analysis and means of expression of their mapping performances, I place their works in the context of other possible approaches and compare them with other authors' practices.

Keywords: videomapping, projection mapping, film relocation, Macula, site-specific, object-specific cinema