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Winner Story
MGM Cotai Watercolor Story by CFIRE
CFIRE transformed MGM Cotai’s atrium into a fully-immersive art experience inspired by Chinese ink painting. Built across 25 massive LED screens, Watercolor Story was crafted using a rich, three-color palette and symbols of luck and longevity like cranes, fish and sailing ships. In collaboration with artist Zheng Chongbin, the small-but-mighty studio turned the luxury resort and casino into a cultural landmark. Read the full interview to discover how their team pulled off the epic project and earned a top honor: the Davey Best in Show Award for Emerging Tech – Virtual & Immersive Experiences: Arts & Culture.
What inspired the creative direction for the installation?
The creative inspiration aimed to immerse individuals and groups inside of an actual traditional Chinese ink painting. Starting with the brushstrokes themselves, bold colors, and iconic symbols representing good fortune and longevity, we sought to craft this world.
Despite the complexity of conveying a story across millions of pixels and 25 massive LED screens from various viewing angles, we simplified it to an easily understandable world, We achieved both cohesion and continuity for the experience using spatial, visual and temporal elements; Cohesion by focusing on massive uninterrupted swaths of only three bold, rich colors: red, turquoise, and blue. Continuity was achieved by bringing the world to life through the inception and 3D spatial movement of familiar, iconic symbols, including realistic “time of flight” of the characters across the negative spaces of the massive atrium.
The LED screens serve as “windows” into our metaverse, a unique vision of the ink painting world that celebrates and transcends the interconnectedness of Macau and China.
How does this project represent your creative ethos?
The project showcases our dedication to honoring originality, and the journey of the creative process. Our team explored and riffed upon Macau heritage, geography, and authentic ink painting techniques, exploring various media without taking anything for granted, and ready to capitalize on new ideas. We believed the right solution would emerge if we stayed true to our process, and indeed it did. This solution also reflects our core values: respecting the natural environment, embracing multidisciplinary innovation, and showing cultural respect.
What made the partnership with MGM special?
The partnership with MGM has been extraordinary from the start, with our initial projects for the MGM Macau spectacle featuring the largest indoor LED screen array at the time. MGM Resorts and MGM Macau are not only aware of the technical marvel they have created, but they have also worked with us to envision and develop an immersive platform that continually evolves. This platform represents a significant innovation in entertainment, digital art, and immersive experiences for hospitality spaces. A major advantage of collaborating with MGM on this project is the comprehensive support from the CEO to the creative and technical teams. This support has effectively provided a mandate for the project’s success. Teams aligned with a shared stake in the outcome are far more likely to succeed, and to win awards!
What are some of the creative risks you took during the creation of the installation?
Designing a cohesive experience across 25 LED screens is a formidable challenge, with few benchmarks for guidance. We had to rely on our creative and technical collective experience, including our collaboration with Zheng Chongbin. Our team’s expertise in worldbuilding and immersive activations, honed over years, including projection events on the Empire State Building, large Dome shows, initial concepting of the MSG Sphere and developing Chicago’s Art on the MART empowered us to take the necessary risks to achieve success. Like they say, “the biggest risk is not taking any risk!”
Describe your biggest obstacle or challenge for the project.
The biggest obstacle was complexity. The biggest challenge was managing the complexity of presenting a cohesive story across 25 disparate LED screens in a vast space with varying lighting and energy configurations. Initial studies showed that detailed artwork tended to get lost in the extensive space. The breakthrough came with embracing radical simplicity. We simplified the narrative and achieved visual unity by using uninterrupted fields of rich, deep colors—specifically red, turquoise, and blue. These colors created a sense of connection, cohesion, and depth throughout the expansive area, forming an ideal backdrop for the iconic ink-painted cranes, harbor fishes, and sailing ships.
Which aspects of the work are you most proud of?
We are most proud of the work’s timelessness. It began with the ancient ink brush technique, which was then enriched with 3D animation and digital technology, evolving into a timeless experience that serves as a portal to the suggested world. The journey didn’t stop there; we have extended this universe from the original source paintings. Now, there are even NFTs from this world, featured in a metaverse art show and available for acquisition in the Web3 art market. Even though the visual tone of the work feels rooted in antiquity and tradition, it also feels distinctly modern and immersive, and elements of it extending into the blockchain, with potential to continually evolve. This evolution and expansion of the project are particularly inspiring for our team.
What does winning a Davey Award mean to you?
Winning the Davey awards was an important milestone for us. It proved that our risks paid off and reaffirmed CFIRE’s commitment to focusing on innovative creative processes, such as strategic, creative and technical leadership in emerging media landscapes, such as mixed reality and immersive technologies, and worldbuilding. This recognition proved that our approach is effective and appreciated. The win also provided a great reason for us to step back and celebrate our work, acknowledge our clients, and appreciate the strength and dedication of our team.
Credits
Zheng Chongbin – Artist
Nick Lynch – Creative Director, CFIRE
Nicholas Lynch – Executive Creative Director, CFIRE
Peter Sapienza – Executive Director, CFIRE
Derek Watterud – Assistant Vice President of Digital & Technology Solutions, MGM Cotai
Darren Kopas – Director of Resort Technology, MGM Cotai
Amy Lai – Senior Resort Technology Manager, MGM Cotai
Leo Tang – Senior Resort Technology Analyst, MGM Cotai
Amania Kuok – Events Supervisor, MGM Cotai
The clock is ticking. This Friday, July 25th marks the Davey Awards’ Final Entry Deadline. Enter your best work before it’s too late.