Perfect Fools launched the final campaign film celebrating one of its most ambitious projects to date: "The Canvas Experiment" - a groundbreaking digital, retail, and artistic fusion experience for Converse.
As part of the campaign, the team behind Canvas created a series of thirty second films each designed to demonstrate user interaction. The latest film is three-minutes long and follows the team through the entire production process - a 'making of' and 'best bits' movie combined.
With Canvas, Perfect Fools has created an outstanding feat of analogue/digital crossover technology. The Canvas looks like a screen from afar, but closer inspection reveals it is a giant matrix of pixels - made up of nearly 500 Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars - that users can interact with.
Weighing 400 kg, the full Canvas is 20 shoes high x 24 shoes wide. Made up of 20 modules, each shoe is mounted on a servomotor and can rotate 180 degrees. One side of each shoe is red, the other blue, while the fronts are white. As it's effectively a low-resolution screen, users can physically render any image on the Canvas, as well as animations, video games, films, and music equaliser graphics. By linking the Canvas to a webcam, users can see their silhouette recreated in sneakers.
As part of the Canvas campaign Converse commissioned three artists to create a series of bespoke pieces. German collective, Mentalgassi, devised an abstract interpretation of a flag using photography, graphic structures, different layers and colors.
Dutch artist, Diederik Kraaijeveld, created a one-of-a-kind Chuck Taylor All Stars portrait using wood flooring salvaged from a basketball court.
French artist Olivia Fremineau celebrated independence of spirit with a unique fusion of photography and art installation.
Artist activity culminated in a Converse pop-up party in Paris earlier this month, as all three artworks were brought together for the first time. French indie rockers, The Dodoz, plugged into the Canvas itself, working all 480 shoes as sound equalizers.
Alongside campaign launch activity, two Canvas window installations appeared in flagship Converse retailers - Courier in Paris, and the Converse Store in Berlin - interacting with the movements of passersby. Parts of the Canvas are currently on display in retail outlets in Barcelona, Madrid and Milan, and this summer, the full Canvas arrives in the UK to celebrate retailer Schuh's 30th Birthday.