Obscura Digital is a creative studio located in historic Pier 70 in the Dogpatch District of San Francisco, California. Combining innovative technology with creative expression, Obscura designs and develops immersive, interactive digital art installations and experiences around the world. Obscura works with Fortune 100 companies, cultural dignitaries, and global foundations to communicate transformative messages using original content for emerging technologies. Obscura specializes in custom video content, large scale interactive displays, architectural installations, kinetic sculpture, stage shows, and projection mapping that turns nearly any surface into a video screen. Obscura Empire State Building

Obscura is best known for first-of-its-kind, large-scale projection mapping events on

St Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican ( it, Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano), or simply Saint Peter's Basilica ( la, Basilica Sancti Petri), is a church built in the Renaissance style located in Vatican City, the papal en ...

at the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

and the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its name is derived from "Empire State", the nickname of the st ...

in 2015, in conjunction with the film

Racing Extinction ''Racing Extinction'' is a 2015 documentary about the ongoing anthropogenic mass extinction of species and the efforts from scientists, activists and journalists to document it by Oscar-winning director Louie Psihoyos, who directed the document ...

. The Empire State Building project was named Modern Met's Top 15 Most Remarkable Art Installations and (combined with the Vatican event) achieved 5.4 billion media impressions globally. Other notable events include projecting an 8-minute program entitled "Chrysalis" in the world's largest geodesic projection dome (at 120 feet diameter) for

Coachella Coachella may refer to: * Coachella, California * Coachella Canal, in California * Coachella (festival), an annual music and arts festival in California * "Coachella – Woodstock in My Mind", a 2017 song by Lana del Rey See also

* Coachell ...

; projecting real-time election results, maps, images of seminal moments in American history, and photos from the campaign trail on the south façade of the Empire State Building during CNN's 2016 election night coverage; and projecting seminal images from

Harper's Bazaar ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

on the north façade of the Empire State Building celebrating Harper's' 150th anniversary. Other notable work includes permanent installations such as the LiveFX Board at

AT&T Stadium AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium, is a retractable roof, retractable-roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL), and was completed on May 27, 2009. I ...

in Dallas, the 52-foot RFID-triggered wall at the

College Football Hall of Fame The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and interactive attraction devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation (NFF) founded the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players and coaches of college football that were vote ...

in Atlanta, and the immersive LED wall in the

Salesforce Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...

office building lobby at 50 Fremont Street in San Francisco.

History

Travis Threlkel, Chris Lejeune, Leo Raderman founded the company in July 2000, and assembled a small team to work out of a South of Market warehouse, with Threlkel overseeing creative, technology, Lejeune overseeing Design and Production, and Raderman as Chairman. In 2002, Patrick Connolly joined Obscura as the company's CEO and was instrumental in growing the business in its early years. Threlkel continued as Chief Creative Officer, Chris Lejeune as COO and Raderman as Chairman. In 2009, Chris Lejeune became CEO and together with Travis Threlkel elevated the scale of the company to the World class visionary company Obscura is known as. Chris Lejeune Successfully managed the company through Acquisition by

Madison Square Garden Company Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. (also known as MSG Sports) is an American sports holding company based in New York City. MSG Sports manages professional sports teams. These include the National Basketball Association's New York Knicks and t ...

in November 2017. At the Time of Sale to MSG Obscura employed a team of over 70 artists, technologists, builders, and strategists, working in three main categories: live events, installations, and experimental technologies with tangible prototypes.

Key projects and collaborations

''Temporary installations and projection events:'' *2017 – "Chrysalis" in The Antarctic dome,

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...

*2017 – Harper's Bazaar 150th Anniversary projections on the Empire State Building *2017 – "Sight Machine" with Trevor Paglen *2016 – CNN Election Night Projections on Empire State Building *2016 – Qasr Al Hosn Festival *2016 – Pier 70 Super Bowl Concert Series featuring Dave Matthews, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run DMC and Snoop Dogg *2016 – Visa Super Bowl Skyline Projections *2016 – #BeAModelMan / Representation Project *2015 – Vatican “Fiat Lux: Illuminating Our Common Home” *2015 – Oceanic Preservation Society “Projecting Change: Empire State Building” *2015 – NASA planetarium shows: International Space Station and Journey to Mars *2015 – UNESCO's 70th Anniversary Celebration *2015 – Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well Concerts *2015 – San Francisco's City Hall Centennial Celebration *2015 – Brandcast US & UK *2015 – YouTube Creators' Summit *2015 – Kuwait Towers: 54th National Day *2014 – IllUmiNations: United Nations People's March *2014 – Tesla Guerilla Projections for Racing Extinction *2014 – AHA! Cleveland *2013 – Exploratorium *2012 – Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque UAE National Day Celebration *2012 – Nike Hyper Elite Platinum Launch *2011 – YouTube Sydney Opera House *2011 – Coca-Cola 125th Anniversary Celebration *2011 – Facebook F8 Connections *2010 – YouTube Play Guggenheim Museum ''Permanent installations and interactive walls:'' *2016 – Salesforce SF headquarters lobby wall *2015 – Shantou University Sports Arena *2015 – Bloomberg San Francisco Tech office: Light Volume *2015 – Dubai 360 Sphere *2015 – UNESCO 70th Celebration Interactive Wall *2014 – AT&T/Dallas Stadium's Live FX Board & Immersive Columns *2014 – College Football Hall of Fame *2014 – Tishman Speyer LUMINA *2013 – Diageo Johnnie Walker *2013 – America's Cup / Flying on Water *2012 – Westfield Illuminique Under the Dome *2012 – San Francisco Public Utilities District *2011 – Yahoo Bus Stop Derby

References

{{Reflist Arts organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area Digital art Arts organizations established in 2000 2000 establishments in California