This work explores how video might move beyond flat screens to inhabit space, engaging audiences not just visually but physically. Drawing on the lure of holography and the phenomenon of persistence of vision, the project asks what happens when moving images are extended, literally, into the air around them. Rather than relying on illusion or personal viewing devices, the work proposes a form of spatialised video: one that can be sculpted in real time through calibrated light.

At the core of the project is a precise alignment between a high-resolution LED video screen and an animation laser, mapped to a shared coordinate system. A live video feed, transmitted via NDI, is analysed in real time using OpenCV to extract features, contours, which are then meshed with a triangulation algorithm. The resulting paths are converted to ILDA format and sent to a laser, which projects the corresponding patterns onto the LED screen, matching the geometry of the video being displayed. Because the laser is perfectly mapped to the LED display, it can seamlessly augment the video content, extending motion and form into the surrounding environment. A fog machine renders the full trajectory of each laser line visible, creating a layered and spatially immersive video-light sculpture.

First presented at the Sonic Acts Festival in Amsterdam (2018), fed with the live output from video artist Karl Klomp’s custom made video generation tools, this work offers a paradigm for real-time video performance in which screen, space, light and data, are fully integrated. By establishing a live, calibrated feedback loop between video and laser output, the piece redefines the relationship between image and environment, where the geometry of motion is not confined to the screen but becomes a physical, performative material.