Excursion to “Haydn Explosive” Exhibition

at Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt, the capital of the Austrian province of Burgenland

We visited the exhibition “Haydn Explosive” today. This exhibition is about Joseph Haydn, one of the most famous composers of Austria. Haydn was the court composer of the Esterhazy dynasty in the second half of the 18^th century.

This exhibition was produced with the latest state of the art presentation technology, using projectors, mirrors and flat screen displays.

On the ceiling of one room there was a video installation. They used four projectors to create the images. The technology behind this is called: “Edge Blending” (See definition at bottom of post). The images shown were: musical instruments used in the court orchestra of the time, the Esterhazy ornamental gardens and the ceiling frescoes of “Haydn Hall“ bursting into flames in an explosion.

The last room we checked out was a small cinema. The video was shown as a background projection. The screen was a glass wall covering the entire wall in an arched shape. They showed an opera by Haydn in a contemporary choreography. Musical instruments, sheet music, paintings of Haydn and his contemporaries were displayed in many vitrines throughout the exhibition. The carpets for this show were designed by Roy Lichtenstein. The electronic devices were controlled by a computer network.

We think the technical realization of the topic was quite creative. The musically interested visitor should be very impressed by the show. In spite of the modern technologies used, we missed 3D effects. Holographic displays would have been terrific also.

All in all it was an accomplished exhibition about Joseph Haydn and his time.

Haydn BBC Documentary

Rest of the BBC Haydn Documentary on YouTube

Summary of the 1st video at the beginning of this post in German:

Wenn Sie in den Innenhof des Schlosses fällt Ihnen der Neon-Schriftzug „Haydn Explosive“ auf.

Es hängt über dem Eingang zur Austellung „Haydn Explosive“ und zeigt auf die extravagante Ausstellung. Eine europäische Karriere am fürstlichen Hof zu Esterhazy.

Man steht in der neoklassizistischen Säulenhalle und wird überrascht von den Teppichen des Popkünstlers Roy Lichtenstein. Die Farben stehen als Symbol für die knalligen, überladenen Farben der Kleider, die die Damen und Herren am Hof trugen.

Sie stehen in einem Kontrast zu der strikten Architektur des Neuklassizismus, charakterisiert durch die fortlaufende Symmetrie und der männlichen Dominanz der Säulen.

Aber genau diese Symmetrie wird durch den schief gelegten Teppichmuster gebrochen.

In der Säulengallerie zieht ein mächtiger Donnerschlag Ihre Aufmerksamkeit alle 7 Minuten auf sich.

Jetzt wird die Verbindung deutlich: die Deckenmalereien des Ballsaales der National-Akademie von Wien unter denen Haydn die letzte Vorstellung seines Oratoriums „Die Schöpfung“ einst hörte, steht in Flammen als eine grosse Projektion, die die ganze Decke ausfüllt.

Edge Blending

is used when the desired image format cannot be realized with a single projector

Example: you have a 6 meters wide and 1.5 meters high image. For this purpose 3 or 4 “4:3 projectors” are needed. First you need to solve the problem of the controls (graphics card), then there is the problem that the projectors do not match at the edges. You always have either a white line or double bright pixels, also the color matching of the individual projectors drops (depending on age / scattering of light) to negative.

One solution is edge blending software, ranging from relatively inexpensive to high priced. There are many products on the market, even ones for curved surfaces.

The alternative solution is to use projectors with an already integrated edge blending function. For example, the Panasonic PT-Dxxxx series. As you connect the devices, set the menu to “Edge Blending” and the they will synchronize.

At the edges the light level is reduced by 50% percent, the total is 100% again. You can get good results using an in-depth manual but otherwise very little effort.