Illuminations: human/nature
As part of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity commissioned Moment Factory and Sarah Fuller to push the boundaries of storytelling by creating an innovative, participative artistic experience in two richly symbolic national parks—Banff National Park and Rouge National Urban Park.
Illuminations: human/nature compels participants to reflect on the stories we tell and the ways those stories shape our wild spaces. In partnership with visual artist Sarah Fuller, the Moment Factory team created two multimedia itineraries that invite groups of visitors to explore these protected sites. Initially invisible, narratives are slowly revealed through the use of technology. In Banff, where the landscape seems utterly untouched, the focus is on the human presence and its imprint. At the Rouge site—the country’s first urban park—we travel instead into the wilderness lurking at the edge of the city, even as the metropolis expands ever farther north.
For six evenings, participants will have the opportunity to see Banff National Park and Rouge National Urban Park differently. Using tools such as lanterns, backpacks, flashlights, virtual maps, and portable video projectors, groups of visitors will take part in uncovering the hidden stories of each site.
The project’s design allowed our team to continue the trademark Moment Factory exploration of shared experiences embedded in spaces where reality and virtuality collide, creating deeply memorable moments. In Illuminations: human/nature, the sites come to life through the use of lightweight, energy self-sufficient portable devices, wireless tools, and various other innovative technologies created through the Moment Factory research and development process.
One of the major challenges of this ambitious project is the successful integration of technology into a natural setting by limiting ecological impact as much as possible—a challenge that highlights the interstices of the human and the natural.
