A rotating display of projected photos at Lumentation as part of Somerville Open Studios. (Photo: Claire Ogden)
Somerville Open Studios – this weekend’s underway event involving more than 350 artists citywide – gets creative with the term “studio,” and it’s fitting: In a city where rents rise year after year, artists have to be resourceful with their space. The result at SOS is an eclectic mix of traditional studio buildings, home live-work spaces and creative businesses that all open their doors this weekend for something exciting and new.
A highlight this year is the Lumentation photo lab, a shop at 219 Highland Ave. that develops, prints and scans film. In its first-ever participation in Somerville Open Studios, shop owner Jim Dandee has engineered a lovely projection of photographers’ work that maps onto the shop’s wall.
Lumentation has its own studio space that it opens for classes year-round. Dandee’s open studios schtick is an ambitious setup that involves three signals – the first, a computer with HeavyM projection mapping software showing a video timeline that runs through local photographers’ work, slideshow-style. The computer’s signal is sent to two other projectors that display the works onto a set of photo frames on the wall.
A computer running HeavyM projection mapping software controls what’s seen in the frames at left at Lumentation in Somerville this weekend. (Photo: Claire Ogden)
It’s a simple concept with gorgeous execution. Highlights include a set of pensive landscapes by Megan Foley and Ernesto Livon-Grossman, and architectural photography with unexpected framings by Lumentation staff member John Carlton Little III.
Founded in 2018, the shop is just a hop, skip and a jump from the Somerville Armory, a group exhibition space where dozens of other local artists are showing work. With this first SOS project, Lumentation has proved itself as a vital asset to the Somerville creative community.
Information on Somerville Open Studios is here.
Share your own 150-word appreciation for a piece of visual art or art happening with photo to [email protected] with the subject line “Behold.”
