Body Echo LLC is a production company founded by Hugh O'Donnell to develop multimedia productions that bring together diverse technical and artistic expertise. The mission of the company is to cross borders that traditionally separate specialized domains of knowledge, bridging the distance between the humanities and general sciences. The outcome is the creation of artworks that are a fusion of poetry and scientific research, and a digital print and motion graphic video portfolio of great diversity and range.
The clip shown above is an abbreviated version of the final film. The clip is divided into two sections. The upper section of the screen presents a detailed section of the film. The lower part, the thin wide strip, shows the complete aspect ratio of the film as it appears on the video wall installation.
This project was commissioned by Wexford Science & Technology, a BioMed Realty company for the University of Miami. The project consists of a ten screen video wall installation designed to complement a wide range of innovative work being undertaken by engineers, doctors, and research scientists at The University of Miami Life Science and Technology Park. The content of the film includes references to scientific visualizations but this is not the main focus of the work. The film is rather a free form artwork in five main sequences intended as a personal celebration inspired by selected areas of research:
The film was built as a lossless 768 x 13660 pixel resolution motion graphic. It was then split to be presented as one seamless film on a video wall of ten 46 inch LCD monitors installed in a single edge to edge horizontal networked array. The overall width is approximately 35 feet.
Credits
Design and Director: Hugh O'Donnell
Producer: Tina O'Donnell
Lead Animator and Compositor: Akhil Bhatt
3D Media Specialist: Howard Kaplan
This animated film, 1600 x 2562 pixels in resolution, plays on a 75 x 120 inch Prysm Laser Phosphor Display (LPD) technology, interactive video wall. The installation is located in the lobby of Boston University's College of Engineering at 44 Cummington Street Boston USA.
The focus of the film is on five primary research clusters: Bioengineering, Cyberphysical Systems, Sensors and Imaging, Micro and Nano and Advanced Materials. The scope of the content is conceived as a system of 5 engineering domains arranged in an interdependent constellation style network topology. Each primary research domain is featured as a parent hexagon connected to child hexagons of related subject areas, for example, Bioengineering (parent) and Synthetic Biology (child). This constellation of hexagons serves as an orientation interface to introduce the content areas as being distinct but also inextricably connected to each other.
The topological network is used throughout the movie as a way of linking segments. At one point in the movie we will use this hexagonal structure to illuminate the College of Engineering research in general, visually moving through the network, naming the five research clusters. Elsewhere the network is used just as a transitional device to let the viewer know which area of engineering science they are visiting.
Credits
Artist and Director: Hugh O'Donnell
Producer/Executive Producer: Tina Eden
Research: Hugh O'Donnell, Tina Eden, Akhil Bhatt
Lead Animator and Compositor: Akhil Bhatt
Animation Production Coordinator: Akhil Bhatt
3D Modeler and Animator: David Binn
3D Modeler: Derek Cuneo
2D Animator and Compositor: Justin Maloney
3D Modeler, Animator and Compositor: Ryan Tindall
2D Animator and Compositor: Jason Yu
Audio Post Production: Jason Foster
