Imaginary Forces

Virtual Napkin Sketch

New City, a multimedia experience that's part of MoMA's "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibit, dares viewers to imagine a virtual architectural world where architects, planners, and designers erect fantastical structures and experiment with urban designs that would be impossible in the real world.

A collaboration by Peter Frankfurt of Imaginary Forces, Greg Lynn of Greg Lynn/Form, and production designer Alex McDowell, New City is a 23x14x9 "faceted media cave" made up of 12 interconnected screens that form a three-sided geodesic dome. Imaginary Forces produced 12 seven-minute films that are individually rear-projected onto the screens, sometimes as multiple, synchronized narratives and sometimes as one collective canvas. A reflective flooring surface composites the film images with those of viewers, inviting them into the conversation. A 3D sound system completes the immersion.

Described as a "very smart look at what virtual space could be," it's not the first collaboration between Frankfurt and Lynn, whose approach is to integrate projects' media components with the spatial experience. Frankfurt says the installation is just the first phase of his studio's plans to develop the concept as a more robust platform, and to invite more experimentation and innovation.