The Noctarium

The Noctarium is a nighttime projection installation that opens urban windows on DUMBO’s public spaces. Each window reveals a silhouetted story, small, everyday moments that feel both ordinary and cinematic. Together, they create a patchwork of city life after dark: intimate, fleeting, and full of unseen delight. This project is a collaboration with DUMBO Art Council as part of the DUMBO Projection Project.

Role: Project Lead, Art Director, Director, Lead writer, Unreal Engineer, Videographer, Editor.

Opening Night 2025 May 02

On opening night at the DUMBO Archway Plaza, The Noctarium lit up the Manhattan Bridge with quiet lives unfolding in glowing windows. We had a beautiful showing: friends, passersby and strangers gathered to watch the scenes play out. Throughout the night, many called the number displayed on the projection to listen to the stories behind the windows. Just that evening alone, our Twilio system recorded over 200 calls.

Behind The Scenes

To create the silhouettes for The Noctarium, we used the Audio Lab space and its four projectors to cast a seamless green wash across the room’s projection screens. This setup gave us a luminous, full-room green screen that allowed us to film crisp, isolated silhouettes. The clean contrast made post-production in After Effects far easier, giving us flexible, beautiful footage to layer into the window scenes.

Each window scene was composited onto a room I built in Unreal Engine, designed to match the mood, lighting and story of the silhouette performances.

The Noctarium is featured as part of Volume 6: Unexpected Delight by the Dumbo Projection Project. On view nightly through May 25.