Light Capsules is a worldwide historical restoration effort using augmented installations that reanimate faded advertisements, also known as ghost signs, and engage local communities around these fading artifacts.
Historical
Research
Each Light Capsule involves research into the history of the advertisement — exploring the story of the business, building, or sign painter behind it.
Digitization Process
We use digital tracing to ensure the utmost accuracy to create an archival-level restoration of our findings. We draw on over ten years of experience in industrial and type design, as well as hands-on training from sign painters.
Layers
Light Capsules are best created from ghost signs that are highly worn or contain multiple layers, also known as palimpsests. These offer a captivating surface on which to highlight specific layers of history.
Two types of Light Capsules:
Illuminations
Visible in the evening.
Temporary or permanent restoration using projection mapping. A public art experience that allows many people to view at once.
Augmentations
Visible during the day.
Digital layers of a ghost sign that can be viewed through your phone. This is best experienced with our upcoming AR App.
These illuminations and augmentations are non-invasive and non-damaging tools that enable viewers to witness the stories of these fading artifacts and observe how buildings and businesses within their communities have transformed over time.
About the Artist
Craig Winslow (b. 1988) is an artist and designer who uses light to create playful, narrative-driven visualizations and immersive experiences. Exploring the temporary nature of all things human-made is a constant throughout Winslow’s work. His creative process is driven by a desire to preserve history through modern technologies, and his fascination with bringing the past into the present led him to an Adobe Creative Residency (2016).
During this residency, he launched Light Capsules — a historical restoration effort reviving faded, hand-painted advertisements worldwide using non-destructive light projection, also known as “augmented restoration.” Winslow’s permanent exhibition, Brilliant! at The Neon Museum in Las Vegas, is a continuation of his pioneering work in augmented restoration using light by reviving defunct, irreparable neon signs.
Winslow’s artistic explorations offer a way to safely approach mortality. He aims to create something that lives beyond him in the same way that he is narrating a story that started before his own.
