Seneca RED Fall 2021 Alumni Magazine - 32

Since 2011, Ms. Lopez and Mr. Narvaez have specialCreating
digital
playgrounds
Projection artists Emma Lopez and Pedro Narvaez
ized in creative applications for projection-mapping
techniques. Among many competitions, they placed first
at the Amsterdam Festival of Lights, second and third
in the most important projection mapping festival in
Asia - in Niigata, Japan - and third at the Moscow
Festival of Lights.
Last fall, as creative partners of a City of Toronto
EMMA LOPEZ AND PEDRO NARVAEZ are too modest to say it, but
since graduating from Seneca's Visual Effects for Film &
Television graduate certificate program more than 10
years ago, the wife and husband team have become two
of the most prominent projection artists in Mexico.
Think Christmas projection lights but on a much
grander and more sophisticated scale. The Bolshoi
Theatre in Moscow, Russia, the Palace of Parliament in
Bucharest, Romania, and the Temple of Santa Rosa de
Viterbo in Querétaro, Mexico, are just a few of the projects
the couple has worked on.
Ms. Lopez and Mr. Narvaez have travelled the world
for their work, but the one place they keep coming back
to over the years is Toronto, where they recently opened
the Canadian chapter of their company AVA Animation
& Visual Arts.
" We have a special connection to Toronto, " Ms.
Lopez said. " There's a market here that reaches North
America, and Seneca continues to open the door for us,
allowing us to explore outside the box by providing us
with the skills we need. "
project that featured artworks projected onto local buildings
and landmarks during the pandemic, the couple
showcased a large-scale projection of an animated short
film. The film, Wawatay, produced by two Seneca Indigenous
storytellers was projected on the side of Odeyto,
Seneca's Indigenous centre at Newnham Campus.
" It's a response to create a canvas for artists in an
open environment with safe distancing measures, " Ms.
Lopez said. " It's about how projection can create these
intimate spaces for public art. "
When projection-mapping on a building, Ms. Lopez
and Mr. Narvaez first build a 3D model of the building
before creating the design. From there, everything is
custom-made and story-themed. They even create a storyboard,
using everything they learned at Seneca to
share engaging visual stories.
To take their work to the next level, Ms. Lopez
recently returned to Seneca and graduated from the
Interactive Media Design diploma program.
" Seneca gave us an edge and the professors gave us
the tools, " she said. " We got to think of design in terms
of movement because the future experience is interactive
and immersive - it's about augmented reality and
virtual reality. It's a digital playground. "
Seneca gave us
an edge and the
professors gave
us the tools.
32 RED 2021
PHOTO: IAN PATTERSON
Seneca RED Fall 2021 Alumni Magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Seneca RED Fall 2021 Alumni Magazine
