A month later, it was time to go back to Grand Rapids, pick up my paperwork, and wrap up business for the 2024 tax season. The butterflies at Meijer Gardens were gone, however the John Ball Zoo had opened up their annual Grand Rapids Lantern Festival to the public and boy did they step up their game! Much like prior events, there were static figures with elaborate lighting, basic animatronic statues that appeared to be on timers, as well as others that were triggered by sensors. Some of these used pressure plates on the walkways, still others were activated by motion sensors as we passed by. There were far more fanciful creatures and fantastic environments than last year. Inspired a lot of thoughts, mostly random, but there was a thread running through them all: animated installations and interactivity.
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| The Nine-Tailed Fox (Jiuwei Hu) |
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| The Hou at night |
All told, it was a fun event, though I highly recommend attending near dusk. I like to make two passes through the Zoo, the first when it's light so I can see the sensor mechanisms and a second when it's dark when those lights really stand out.
There are two other events involving animatronics going on right now for those who are interested, both of which I'm hoping to attend:
After I got home, I started to go down the rabbit hole, researching one sensor activation technology after another--and how they could be integrated with animated installations. Fortunately I pulled back and only bookmarked a couple websites and books. Just don't have the time to dig into this tech right now. But hopefully soon.
Prior to this event, I had been doing a little research on how museums could use QR codes (and some do) in order to link visitors to additional information on their works of art--or how it could be used for contemporary artists. As fate would have it, for the annual Free RPG Day event this year, Hoplite Games had implemented a scavenger hunt/dungeon crawl adventure that was created by Ninth Level Games. They were just letter-sized pages that described a location in the dungeon and offered clues based upon what decision the player selected. Only six locations but it was fun and showed a unique use of QR codes.
Getting back to animated installations, I'm afraid that I was a little early to the party at R.I.T. After I had graduated, Marla Schweppe had left the animation program and started a 3d digital design program that included some interactivity. Given how Riot Games has been integrating animation, live-action performers, augmented-reality, and advanced Pepper's Ghost (pseudo-holographic) tech into their yearly League of Legends Worlds competition event, I think Marla had a pretty clear vision of where the industry was headed. Wish I would've had the opportunity to take a couple of her classes dealing with interactivity and animation.
Clearly, my thoughts on the subject are all over the place.
My current plan is to see the Dragon Forest at the Detroit Zoo in August. I'll be interested to see how complex the statues are and how they leverage interactivity in their animatronics to enhance visitor engagement.
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