Olivia PowellPixel Artworks, specialists in light and pixel technology, have designed and created The Garden of Light, a exclusive multi-sensory installation for McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Ashford.
The Garden of Light uses immersive audio technology and LED pixel lighting to create a 360 degree virtual garden as part of the expansion of McArthurGlen Designer Outlet, Ashford.
In tribute to Kent’s status as the ‘Garden of England’, The Garden of Light provides shoppers with a multifaceted walkthrough experience designed to stimulate all the senses and reflect on guests’ connection with nature.
The experience also features Europe’s biggest living wall installation, with 120,000 leafy green plants making up the exterior.
The experience, whilst free, encourages visitors to donate to the William Harvey Hospital after they have walked through the installation.
As shoppers enter the experience, they journey through a garden created via projections and LED. The installation contains elements of all four seasons as visitors pass continue through it.
Creative director at Pixel Artworks, Riaz Farooq, said: “Producing The Garden of Light has truly been a creative journey through a multitude of artistic and technological disciplines. Collectively we have explored the boundaries of motion design and real-time graphics, effectively creating a living game-like environment, full of discovery and play.”
The Pixel Artworks team used the visual development tool TouchDesigner (TD) to combine intuitive interactions, projected visuals and pixel lighting. TD also allowed for multiple projectors to work at once, all projection onto multiple different surfaces. In total throughout the installation, 16 projectors create over 200,000 lumens.
Senior technology consultant, Haaziq Farook, added: “Real-time generative content has been a focal point of achieving a beautifully fluid, unique experience in the space – something we’ve only seen achievable to this extent in Notch.
“The recent integration into TD opens up a new world for us in this installation. We’ve manipulated incoming sensor data using TD, and affected parameters in Notch inside a single project. The net result is an optimised workflow to output precisely triggered, high quality motion graphics.”
Centre manager at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Ashford, Peter Corr, commented: “In celebration of the £90 million expansion opening this autumn, we wanted to offer visitors a brand new experience. With The Garden of Light guests can expect to journey into a virtual garden of discovery, exploring nature’s four seasons represented through the power of light. We are committed to elevating our guests shopping experience and we are thrilled to be partnering with Pixel Artwork to deliver a unique multi-sensory installation to McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Ashford.”
Business director for Pixel Artworks, Laurence White, added: “We were excited by McArthurGlen’s proposal from the outset. The scope to design and deliver all aspects of a unique shared immersive experience ticked all our boxes. It has been a joy to collaborate in partnership with McArthurGlen to make this project become a reality.”
The Garden Of Light will be open from 7 November 2019.