Later this month, San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts will host the first edition of If So, What? (ISW)—a multi-hyphenate fair seeking to animate the art and design collecting base on the West Coast. In addition to traditional art gallery booths, the fair is also bringing musicians, designers, and technology companies to the arena for symposia and other events. One project that straddles the fields of innovative engineering and art is the first Porsche Art Media Installation, a collaboration between the luxury German automaker and recent graduates from the prestigious California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

CalArts Digital Arts Expo 2017. Photo: Rafael Hernandez courtesy of CalArts.

The Porsche Art Media Installation is emblematic of the ethos driving the ISW fair as a whole, combining industry and art. The Digital Arts program at CalArts hosts annual expos that introduce ideas and projects dissolving the boundaries between artist and engineer, and Porsche is at the forefront of using technology to enhance drivers’ experience, most recently integrating blockchain applications into vehicles.

Rendering of the Porsche Art Media Installation. Photos: Trey Gilmore and Jesse Garrison.

The Installation project is an experiment in audience interaction both IRL and online. Projection mapping and visualization technology generate signals, which trigger waves of ever-changing colors cast onto a Porsche model—which becomes the canvas. The colors shift in real time, in response to visitors’ physical distance from the vehicle itself, as well as social media users’ engagement with tags related to the project (#Porsche, #CalArts, and #ifsowhat).

The Porsche Art Media Installation will be unveiled at If So, What? from April 26–29 at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco.