The history of video mapping computer tools

2010-2018: Towards a golden age of software?

The 2010s begin with a boom in software specifically devoted to video mapping. 2011 sees the birth of the following (still very popular today): Visution Mapio, created by the Russian developer Ivan Yuryevich Ryabov, and Madmapper, the fruit of three years of collaboration between the French studio 1024 Architecture and the Geneva-based firm GarageCube. Based on Syphon, Madmapper is compatible with a whole series of VJing programs. The following year, in October 2012, Anomes releases its video mapping program Millumin. One of the key features of these software programs is the possibility of planning a performance over time — and thus further dissociating the act of creation from real time. 2012 also sees the launch of the first version of Modulo Player, a server media solution with software, developed by Modulo Pi (a company based in Seine-Saint-Denis). Inaugurated to mark the renovation of the galleries in the Institut du Monde Arabe, it will be used historically for monumental projection and praised for its ergonomic design.

The following years are just as fruitful when it comes to the development of mapping tools: in 2014, Sofian Audry (Quebec) launches version 1.0 of Mapmap (open source), while Mark Coniglio (USA) integrates the Izzymap mapping tool into his Isadora (2.0) software. The following year sees the launch of ‘general public’ mapping software — considered easy to use — : HeavyM. Starting around 2015, interactive installations and performances multiply, with work on motion capture systems (so that the mapping reacts to the gestures or voices of the audience): some examples of this include Totem A, the installation by Aurélien Lafargue, Laurent La torpille, Jean-François Le Roux and Mourad Bennacer, presented at Cosmopolis in Nantes in December 2013, as well as S.c.u.l.p.t. by Yann Nguema, designed for the Collégiale Saint-Martin in Angers in 2016 — this installation implements leap motion: a hand-motion capture system. Finally, the Lightform software is released in 2018: far removed from the tools designed for live shows, Lightform is specially intended for visual artists and designers and especially tailored to the mapping of small objects.

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