The screen politics of architectural light projection

Recent developments in projector technology and mapping software have enabled more artists and promotional firms to pursue large-scale, outdoor projections onto architectural and other public surfaces. Projection mapping techniques now have the ability to radically transform diverse surfaces beyond the ‘white screen’, including animate bodies, with dominating and powerful light images. What are the politics and ethics of such an emerging ‘projection culture’, wherein any surface has the potential to become screen? How can interventionist architectural light projections be distinguished from promotional projections? Recent examples of such projection practices in contemporary art and in the commercial sphere are examined.