For the tenth year in a row, Binghamton, NY will showcase what is possible when art and technology collide. The annual LUMA Projection Arts Festival has been one of the preeminent exhibitions of projection mapping technology in the United States for the past decade. This year’s version will be a celebration of LUMA’s impressive past and the continuing possibilities of projection mapping in art.

Near the New York/Pennsylvania border, Binghamton is a three-hour drive from New York City and boasts a population of just under 50,000 people. It’s hardly the location most would expect to host a cutting-edge arts festival.

Yet, in 2015, a street photographer, a film editor, and an event planner had an idea for a projection mapping arts festival in that very city. They had expected maybe 3,000 attendees. The turnout wasn't quite what they expected — 30,000 people came.

Since that first year, LUMA has only grown in ambition and popularity. By partnering with Panasonic Connect for the past years, the event has been able to provide artists with the best projection technology available. Each year, LUMA combines creativity, artistic vision, and technological advancement to transform Binghamton into an unforgettable immersive artistic experience.

LUMA’s Projection Mapping Technology Allows Artists to Reach New Heights

In 2015, LUMA’s founders Joshua Bernard Ludzki, Nick Rubenstein, and Tice Lerner looked at the architecture of Binghamton, New York, and saw something others did not. They saw a canvas.

Taking inspiration from projection mapping festivals in Europe, they imagined Binghamton as a large-scale art exhibition where technology, architecture, and artistic creativity could meld through the use of outdoor projectors. The result would showcase their city through state-of-the-art storytelling.

Co-founder Ludzki explained that they wanted to "create something bold" — an experience that could pull in a big audience and showcase what the city's art scene could offer to the world. 

While the trio had to develop the festival's concept on their own with a small budget, that initial version of LUMA still proved to be a success. Artists and audiences alike saw the potential of the homegrown projection mapping festival. To fully reach its potential, LUMA would need technology that could transform even the most ambitious artist’s visions into reality.

LUMA Finds Their Projection Mapping Partner in Panasonic Connect

Staging a citywide, outdoor projection mapping festival comes with numerous artistic, logistic, and technological challenges. Just a few examples include:

• The live, outdoor setting means weather can vary, so tech needs to be reliable in multiple weather conditions.
• For art to truly be the star of the show, the AV tech needs to be unobtrusive. Audiences should be able to focus on the story in front of them without being distracted by overly loud or large projection equipment.
• Artists and engineers come to the festival with different technological skill levels. Everything needs to be intuitive and easy-to-use, so exhibits won’t be reliant on specialized knowledge.

To meet these challenges, LUMA needed a partner who understood both projection mapping tech and the specific challenges posed in Binghamton. The event organizers found that partner in Panasonic Connect.

While Ludzki was initially doubtful they'd receive a full Panasonic team to provide hands-on support for the event, he was happily surprised to find that Panasonic Connect "became part of [the] community" throughout the planning, prepping, and execution of the festival. According to him, the Panasonic team "understood every aspect of what we were trying to accomplish, any potential issues we may have during the event and what needed to be addressed.”

By partnering with Panasonic Connect, LUMA was able to grow and provide greater storytelling opportunities with the help of crystal-clear 4K projectors and video mapping technology. Lerner, one of the other co-founders, saw the immediate benefits, noting that “the projection enhanced the installations so much, it delivered art with something to say.”

How LUMA Impacts the Community

Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, LUMA has delivered on its promise to invigorate the Binghamton art scene and the city itself. Through its partnership with Panasonic Connect, it has been able to keep down festival costs, which has meant most exhibits at LUMA are free to attend, allowing anyone to enjoy the exciting creations.

In addition, LUMA celebrates the artistic spirit and architectural brilliance of the city. Examples of LUMA’s community impact include:

• Reinvigorating building architecture in the city that otherwise may be taken for granted.
• An estimated one-day economic impact of up to $900,000 during the festival.
• Free, year-round projection mapping classes to support future artists and AV tech wizards in the region.

While LUMA attracts artists from around the world who contribute to the annual festival, they also hold a space for the artists in their community. The Peg Johnston Living Light Project is a way to invite anyone, including younger members of the community, to submit work and see it showcased during the festival — all while honoring the memory of Peg Johnston, a beloved member of the Binghamton artistic community.

Highlights from Past LUMA Festivals

The tenth anniversary of LUMA is sure to bring majesty and excitement to the streets of Binghamton yet again. Panasonic Connect will be LUMA’s exclusive projection technology partner, providing digital projectors, lenses, and many other live event production tools to help LUMA’s artists bring their visions to life.

If the past is any indicator, the results will be stunning. Throughout nine previous LUMA festivals, artists have provided dozens of featured exhibits to awe audiences. Before the tenth anniversary, it’s worth looking back at a few highlights from recent years.

In 2019, LUMA transformed Church Sanctuaries and Five-Story Buildings

2019’s LUMA festival welcomed over 55,000 people. Some of the incredible art they saw included:

• Sviatovid – Bartkresa Studio brought a 15-foot faceted totem housed inside Binghamton United Presbyterian Church to life with interactive animations.
  
  
• Pandora’s Box – Maxin10sity projected the story of Pandora and the evils she unleashed onto a five-story building on Collier Street.
  
  
• Mural Mappings – One of the earliest iterations of what would become the Peg Johnston Living Light Project featured work from the community projected onto a building on Court Street.

LUMA returns with advanced tech in 2021

After being forced to shift to VR and remote viewing in 2020, the crowds returned to LUMA in 2021 and were met with advanced projection mapping technology that brought new stories to life:

• Cheerful Nightmares – An amusement park takes over a building on Court Street. But what happens when the rides have a mind of their own and amusement turns into a nightmare?
  
  
• Cosmogonia – Projected onto the Carnegie Library, Artist Mindscape asks audiences to ponder philosophical questions about the universe and our role in history.
  
  
• Nevermore – Edgar Allen Poe is celebrated through a retelling of three of his stories. A combination of human-generated and AI elements leaves audiences pondering the relationship between man and machine.

LUMA and Panasonic Connect explore the possibilities of projection mapping in 2023

Last year’s LUMA festival continued to push the limits of what’s possible with projection mapping technology. Incredible artists used the large canvas of Binghamton to tell sweeping stories about time and humanity:

• Infinite Horizons – We follow a lone astronaut as he explores different worlds. Along the way we question the nature of human curiosity… and the potential cost.
  
  
• Second Nature – Artist Yann Nguema creates a visual poem that intermingles projections of the natural world and the facades of man-made structures. In the end, audiences are left pondering history vs. modernity, technology vs. nature, and where we fit amidst it all.
  
  
• Re-Naissance – By following a stone monument through time, the audience is invited to question its place in the stream of history and the structures and creations left behind after we’re gone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfS0wWgcCuw

LUMA Combines Projection Mapping and Art to Create Magic

Some of the best art speaks to the possibilities of human imagination. The first spark of imagination at LUMA was when the founders looked at their city and saw its artistic potential. From that initial spark, LUMA has grown. Through its partnership with Panasonic Connect, it has given artists access to the best projection mapping technology, allowing imaginations to soar.

On September 6 and 7, 2024, LUMA and Panasonic Connect will bring the tenth LUMA Projection Arts festival to Binghamton. Once again, it’s poised to entertain and inspire awe in all those who attend. As Ludzki put it, when art and technology combine in the right way, “It’s like a magic trick.”