GRCB BANK – Time Tells a Luminous Story

by DEM Global Designed for GRCB, Guangzhou, China

Like two rivers meeting and blending, together taking on a new character, so is the installation Time Tells a Luminous Story a conflux of artistic styles, effortlessly redefining its own creative direction.  Borrowing from the ancient Chinese art of ink paining, and augmenting it with western water color practices, it sits a conflux of east and west.  But it does not stop there. In fact, Time Tells a Luminous Story is an interactive digital art piece.  It’s not simply a rendered video, but rather, a dream like world representing the area around Guangzhou city in China in a time far before industrial revolution with which you can interact. 

Using cutting-edge programming the creators, DEM Global, brought a watercolor/ink painting to life.  Something that normally only represents a moment in time, all of the sudden comes to life.  Not only is it no longer frozen, it is multidimensional, existing on multiple surfaces, allowing visitors to enter this world and to be surrounded by its wonders. As visitors take in the grand art piece and starts to look at the details, they will notice the ink is still fresh, still flowing in places. The digital painting is in a constant state of flux.

When you ‘walk’ into the digital painting you’ll notice that it’s divided into 5 distinct areas made up of a long (32m) wall and 4 octagonal pillars.  Each area represents one of the 5 Chinese elements; a five-fold intertwined scheme that represents the interdependence of the world around us and is made up of metal, water, wood, earth, and fire.  The long wall represents metal(gold) and relates to the golden grain collected by the farmers in the area.

While walking between the tall columns reminiscent of ancient tree trunks, the visitors miss out on cyclical nature, where the digital flora and fauna inhabiting it changes, unless they come more than once. The changes are based on a Chinese farmer’s almanac that describes 8 seasons, two for each of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The flora and fauna consist of 70 carefully modeled, individual species native to the Guangzhou area.

·       One of the most important aspects of the installation is the interaction.  It’s what sets in apparat from regular art displays.  Rather than visitors being only spectators, they influence the what happens on the vast screen space.  While navigating the voluminous lobby, the location of visitors is tracked by an array of 12 sensors.  They are the eyes of the installation, telling the 6 rendering computers what to draw.  But that is all behind the scenes. All the visitors see is the direct changes that happen through their presence.  Petals fly in the wind as they approach a scene.  Animals react and approach the viewer. Or in the case of one of the special modes, The Sea of Flowers, the plum blossoms close up and kapok flowers (mu mian hua) open reflecting their innate personalities.

Another most unique aspects of the installation is the fact that it is in a constant state of flux.  The first level or variation is the pre-programmed behaviors of various animal species being augmented by the presence of visitors.  To farther aid the installation to be alive, DEM draws on 13 Big Data values, drawn from assorted matrices created by the Farmer’s Bank of Guangzhou, where the installation is the house.  These data points create farther variance in what is being rendered.  In the most basic way of stating it, it makes the installation a little different every time you see it.  It might not be the most obvious change at times as the display space is 26K, housing 54million individual LED dots.

Whenever you visit, your experience will be enhanced by the soundtrack uniquely created for this site.  It consists of 7 different compositions, one for every season, and each of the 3 special modes. Each sets the mood for a full sensory experience. Together they make up a symphony, an ode to life. Created by two talented composers, who worked with the number of musicians blending east and west. Minimal electronic music works together with traditional Chinese instruments to perfectly complement the visual experience. 



The immense scale of the installation and the multiple vitiations of it make it a must visit, and it’s best to plan to visit few times to be able to see all the different settings.