Stewart Filmscreen’s Creative 5D Screen Essential To Museum Of The Moving Image Exhibit

Stewart Filmscreen’s Silver 5D makes its debut in the RealTime UnReal exhibit at the Museum of the Moving Image

March 3, 2011

Stewart Filmscreen Corporation®, the industry leader in precision projection screen technologies for commercial and residential markets announces its participation in the RealTime UnReal installation commissioned by the Museum of the Moving Image. Stewart showed its creative engineering pedigree in its debut of the Silver 5D screen material in this landmark event attended by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Tony Bennett, and Melvin Van Peebles among other luminaries. The exhibit, RealTime UnReal, designed by Thomas Soetens and Kora Van den Bulcke of Workspace Unlimited, utilizes Stewart Filmscreen’s Silver 5D material to demonstrate the pinnacle of modern 3D capabilities. The installation addresses the fusion of physical and digital space. The installation employs 2 stereoscopic projections on a double-sided projection screen and game engine software customized by the artists, capturing visitors in the physical space and displaying them in an imaginary world. The virtual world seems to occupy physical space like a sculpture in the museum, an alternate reality floating in midair. Walking around the virtual world alters its viewpoint, reveals impossible perspectives and simultaneous occurrences, and disrupts its architecture. Realtime Unreal challenges visitors to bridge the gap between what their eyes perceive and what their minds believe is unreal. “Stewart Filmscreen’s Silver 5D screen was a essential component to the exhibit due to its wider viewing cone and increased center to edge brightness uniformity,” stated Thomas Soetens, Director/Leading Artist of Workspace Unlimited. “The RealTime UnReal exhibit is an immersive, interactive display that encourages visitors to walk around the screen making the ability to have 3D off-axis viewing a necessity for the success of the project. Stewart Filmscreen is the only manufacturer that could deliver the technical innovation, product reliability and professional service needed to ensure that our creative vision could become a reality.” The installation was commissioned by the Museum of the Moving Image in conjunction with the grand opening of their expanded facility on January 15, 2011. The installation will be on view at the museum for a period of six months after which it may travel to other venues. “Stewart Filmscreen is delighted to be a part of such an innovative installation that allows us to push the boundaries of 3D technology to create an exciting and thought-provoking display for visitors,” said Don Parenta, Director of North American Commercial Sales for Stewart Filmscreen. “Silver 5D (3D + 2D) screen is unlike any competitive or previously available fabric in that it offers industry leading passive 3D polarization while maintaining outstanding performance for 2D sources. We specified this material for this amazing application as It has better uniformity, less hot spotting and a significantly wider viewing cone.” About Stewart Filmscreen Stewart Filmscreen is the world’s premier projection-screen manufacturer for both the residential and commercial markets. A family-owned business, Stewart Filmscreen maintains the highest standards in screen design and craftsmanship. In fact, each screen is handmade. Founded in 1947, Stewart Filmscreen has grown from a small business to an international one, with offices in Denmark and Singapore, in addition to two in the United States, including a manufacturing facility in Ohio and their headquarters in So. California. More information on Stewart Filmscreen Corporation is available at www.stewartfilmscreen.com. About Museum of the Moving Image Museum of the Moving Image is the only institution in the U.S. that explores the art, industry and innovation of screen culture in all its forms. Incorporating everything from 19th century optical toys to the latest Internet developments, the Museum provides insight into every phase of the production, promotion and exhibition of moving images. Engaging an international audience of all ages, Museum of the Moving Image offers a distinctive, highly interactive core exhibition; contemporary and retrospective programs of films from around the world; public discussions with leading figures in film and television; a unique collection; inspiring education programs; stimulating changing exhibitions; and groundbreaking online projects. About Workspace Unlimited Workspace Unlimited (2001) founded in Belgium by Thomas Soetens and Kora Van den Bulcke is an international collective that is at the forefront of media art, creating some of today’s most compelling virtual worlds and interactive installations. The collective’s projects engage with hybrid space, territories that emerge when physical spaces intersect with the enlarged public spheres of electronic networks and immersive technologies. As technologies guide the way we experience and conceive of space, Workspace Unlimited and its international team of art and technology specialists are exploring hybrid space with the unrealized potential of game environments to simulate and reshape architectural spaces. This ongoing research investigates and expands our understanding of the relationship between space and technology, as their simultaneous and reciprocal existences continue to invade both our real and virtual spaces. In this way, hybrid space challenges traditional conceptions of space and time, reality and simulation, and perverts the unidirectional implication of the real and the simulacrum.

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