What To Watch On The Night Lights Tower This Month

Last November the Daniels and Fisher Tower on the 16th Street Mall started lighting up at night with a variety of animated videos and artwork. The project is coined Night Lights and is spearheaded by David Moke of the Denver Theatre District in partnership with Downtown Denver Partnership, Orange Barrel Media and the tower itself. Since it started, it’s projected more than 40 artists, featuring a mixture of local and international talent. One of the first animations came from the world-renowned artist collective Limelight, who showed off their skills while also highlighting the possibilities of projection mapping on the tower.

What makes Night Lights different from other projection projects is its use of projection mapping rather than flat screen mapping. Projection mapping requires exact dimensions of the building so that the artwork can contour to the surface and mold into all the cracks and crevices. Animators create designs that interact with architectural elements and can even make the building appear to move or twist. In order to pull this off on the Daniels and Fisher Tower, Night Lights had to first acquire 10 enormous projectors.