Art Processors wins at Fast Company’s 2023 Innovation by Design Awards
Art Processors, the experiential design consultancy, has announced that it won in the Experience Design category at Fast Company’s recent Innovation by Design Awards, in recognition of From the Sails: Light Years, the film and sound experience that the firm created to kick-off the Sydney Opera House’s 50th year celebrations.
The Innovation by Design Awards celebrate the designers and companies addressing today’s most pressing issues and foreseeing those of tomorrow. The competition, which is now in its 12th year, includes a variety of blue-chip corporations, developing startups, and young talent. It is one of the most coveted design accolades in the business.
Art Processors’ winning entry, From the Sails: Light Years, was a unique video artwork projected onto the western sails of the Sydney Opera House to begin the landmark’s 50th-anniversary festivities. The 17-minute film was made by Sam Doust, group director of creative services, and it explored the building’s past and legacy as a performance space, a public building, and a World Heritage-listed masterpiece.
Thanks to the company’s cutting-edge live audio-visual synchronisation technology, anybody witnessing the show from across the harbour, on the boat, or at a nearby venue could listen to the accompanying musical score on their mobile device, adding to the wonder of the live experience.
An honour to win
“It is an incredible honour to win an Innovation by Design Award,” says Mark Nihill, Art Processors CEO. “To have the innovation and grand scale of this work recognised alongside the many creative thinkers in this competition is a significant achievement.
“Our team really brought their diverse energies and outlooks together to create something truly magical to celebrate the Sydney Opera House’s 50th year – and you could see that in the reaction of the audience, Live performance is such an exhilarating medium. It was a joy to connect technology and art in a way that elevates what an outdoor event can be, and do so in partnership with one of the most recognisable icons in the world.”
Doust was in an excellent position to develop From the Sail: Light Years as a recognised Sydney Opera House historian and award-winning motion artist.
“My prior expertise in the many facets of the story was never more useful than beginning to think how best to visualise and represent, in an inclusive manner, the creativity and abundance of this world-renown performance venue,” he says.
“With such an extraordinary canvas to work with, here at Art Processors we were instantly compelled to give this opportunity the dual function of projection art and cinema by inventing a seamless way for anyone to sync live with the soundtrack from wherever they were.”
“My colleagues Rob Keniger, Adam Phin and Anders Rasmussen developed the live audio synchronisation function. The technology itself is impressive for its ease and accessibility…but it’s the magical quality of being onsite and suddenly listening in sync that is the transformative experience.”
Celebrating innovation
Famous designers from many fields, business leaders from some of the most cutting-edge organisations in the world, and the writers and editors of Fast Company made up the panel of judges. Functionality, originality, beauty, sustainability, user insight, cultural impact, and business impact, all essential ingredients of innovation, were all taken into account when judging the entries.
“So much innovation news these days is focused on AI,” says Brendan Vaughan, editor-in-chief of Fast Company. “This year’s Innovation by Design honorees are a reminder that it’s human ingenuity that drives invention.”
The full list of winners and honourees can be found here.
Art Processors also recently worked on a project to produce immersive visitor experiences at Pentridge Prison. The reimagined tour combines an exploration of the site’s history with powerful first-hand accounts from former inmates, prison officers and clerics.
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