Moving images: Getty brings film library to life

Cannes – Do you think libraries are boring? Think again. Getty Images has challenged that notion by creating an interactive video wall in collaboration with London-based audio-visual architects The Light Surgeons.

The installation, created for the 60th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, presented 1,000 clips from the 1.8m held in Getty’s video library. Each clip – ranging from lunar landings to extreme skiing – was presented as a series of still images streamed vertically, with a specific clip emerging from the mix as a viewer approaches. As visitors reached out, keywords associated with the clip were activated. When a viewer settled on a keyword, tendrils flowed out, connecting with other videos containing the same word.

Ambient music drawn from Getty’s sound library accompanied the installation, subtly enhancing the experience. The Light Surgeons founder Chris Allen says the aim was to create a soothing space to counteract the advertising overload of the Cannes festival.

‘It was calming and slightly contemplative,’ he tells LS:N Global. ‘We wanted to create an atmosphere of serenity and let people get away.’

For more on how to harness the power of serenity, interactivity and big data, read our Dawn of the Mega-systems toolkit and The New Sublimity macrotrend.