The Poet’s Exchange

1. Research question

The Poet’s Exchange was a public art projectionshowcasing 3 original poems as part of the FUSION2017 multi-cultural street festival. How could the 3 works, Untitled (Anwar,Aymen and Qasim), ‘Khudi’ (Zohab Zee Khan) & ‘Africa’ (Jackline Okot) developedby Red Room Poetry, be visualised in a photo-realistic 4-minute panoramic 3Danimation with only a few days production time?

2. Research contribution

For each poem, there was an English translation and thenative language text. The projection featured a photorealistic room as afictional home for The Poet’s Exchange, with each poem rendered into arealistic sky with virtual landscape at a particular time of day. This was achievedusing the latest game-engine technology to create hyper-realistic imagery at ultra-highresolution (7232 x 1080 pixels). A new production workflow embracing GraphicsProcessing Unit (GPU) rendering and game technology enables digital artists to overcomepreviously impossible deadlines without compromising on creative control or imagequality.

3. Research significance

4 scenes were rendered at 8K resolution at an unprecedented speedof up to 60 frames per-minute. The project was finished on time and showcased atFUSION 2017. The gaming engineemployed, Unreal Engine 4 {UE4}, has become increasingly popular and establishedenterprise-level support for virtual production. The Poet’s Exchange waspublicly exhibited from 20^th October – 8^th November, 2017on the 50m x 8m screen at the Wagga Wagga City Council. The video contains 4 x1-min sequences and is the first projection to feature 50 frames-per-secondanimations (double the standard framerate for smoother motion).