As the city and county’s bicentennial year continues, there are plans to shed some actual light on the area’s history.
The Columbus Board of Works recently approved a request to close part of Fourth Street for a custom projection mapping show set for Sept. 23 and 24. The show is entitled “200 Years Together: Our Stories Illuminated on 4th Street.”
The show will be “immersive” and highlight the city and county’s past, present and future.
According to the city’s docket of right-of-way requests, the bicentennial steering committee has commissioned Blockhouse Studios for this show, which will be displayed on the Ulrich Building downtown.
Tobi Herron, co-chair of the bicentennial steering committee, described projection mapping as “incredible technology that blends real life objects and immersive video.”
“We’re taking an actual building and turning it into a three dimensional, action oriented movie screen,” she said. “Even though the building itself doesn’t physically change, you’re tricked into thinking it’s been transformed through the use of technology.”
Blockhouse has worked closely with the bicentennial team and community to put together a show with local images, Indiana-based music and “local voices,” Herron said.
The business has also worked with Exhibit Columbus in the past on projections for their opening night party, as well as with national and Indiana clients. Their experience includes events such as Newfields Harvest Nights and Indiana University’s Hoosier Hysteria night.
The bicentennial show is about eight minutes long and will be cycled from 8 to 10 p.m. on both nights. It will run about every 10 minutes, Herron said.
Director of Administration and Community Development Mary Ferdon said that often, for these kinds of displays, people will watch the cycle three times because “there’s so much going on.”
“They worked a lot with the Bartholomew County Historical Society, put in a lot of great pictures,” she said during a board of works meeting. “So it’s going to be fun. And that week, we’ve timed it on Thursday and Friday of the week of the marathon, because we feel like a lot more people will come downtown.”
The 2021 Mill Race Marathon is set to return to Columbus Sept. 25.
Herron said that to accommodate the projection show and its audience, Fourth Street will be closed between Washington and Franklin.
The committee is hoping that both local residents and visitors will pull up a chair and watch the show, she added. They will also be inviting merchants to “set up shop” and sell bicentennial-themed items, and refreshments will be available.
She described the event as a high-tech yet nostalgic event, with not only locally-sourced material but also national scenes that represent the same time periods.
“We hope the show rekindles a sense of nostalgia and community when people see, hear, and experience things from their past that they may have forgotten,” Herron said.
