{"id":44014,"date":"2024-04-12T01:33:25","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T08:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=44014"},"modified":"2024-04-10T15:11:57","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T22:11:57","slug":"immersed-in-animation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2024\/04\/12\/immersed-in-animation\/","title":{"rendered":"Immersed in animation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alex Greenberg\u2019s family experience drove his work for the Dallas Holocaust Museum. <\/i>(photo from Alex Greenberg)<\/i><\/p>\n

It was a winding road for Alex Greenberg to become head of animation at a leading creative technology firm in Vancouver.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Born in Moldova, Greenberg and his family made aliyah in 1990, when he was 11 years old. After a \u201cpretty regular childhood\u201d in Israel, high school graduation, military service and a bit of travel around the world, Greenberg settled down to study animation.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, two months into school, the director of the school took the money and split,\u201d he said. \u201cMy luck. All the money was gone, the money I got from my [military] service.\u201d<\/p>\n

He started looking for schools in Canada and the United States where he could continue his studies. He discovered the Art Institute of Vancouver and moved here, by himself, in 2003.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward \u2026 Greenberg is immersed in immersive technology. As head of animation for ngx Interactive, he has his finger in many projects \u2013 including one that shares the testimonies of Holocaust survivors and which, of everything he has worked on, is closest to his heart.<\/p>\n

Founded more than two decades ago in Vancouver, ngx\u2019s 80 or so employees, according to the company\u2019s website, help clients \u201creimagine what\u2019s possible in physical and digital spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work with four main sectors,\u201d said Greenberg.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The museum sector is a big one. The company took part in a major re-envisioning of the National Portrait Gallery in London, UK. It reopened last year featuring 41 multimedia exhibits, including an artificial intelligence-powered portrait experience, an animated projection wall featuring some of the gallery\u2019s most stunning portraits, interactive touch screens, and documentary films produced by ngx.<\/p>\n

The medical sector is another area and, if you have ever taken your kids or grandkids to BC Children\u2019s Hospital, you may have seen the interactive aquarium ngx developed for the emergency room so that young patients and their families have something to take their minds off the stressful reasons for their visit.<\/p>\n

A third area is themed attractions, which have engaged audiences in such diverse spaces as Vancouver\u2019s Science World, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, Jurassic World in Beijing and the Canada Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai.<\/p>\n

Their corporate and institutional work, another core area for ngx, includes an interpretive exhibition in the pharmaceutical sciences building at the University of British Columbia, where visitors explore the world of health, and a project for Roche Canada, in the Toronto area, where the global pharmaceutical company has an interactive space for employees to engage with the Roche brand story.<\/p>\n

Other projects help visitors explore cultural institutions like the Citadel Heritage Centre in Halifax, Indigenous cultural storytelling at Wanuskewin Heritage Park in Saskatoon, and interpretive exhibits about nature at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.<\/p>\n

Greenberg\u2019s specific role in ngx projects is lighting and look development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are working on a project, there\u2019s a certain style to it, lighting, a certain mood, something that will convey the story,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t just create these experiences to make them look cool. There\u2019s a lot of thought that is being put behind them, thinking about the colours and thinking about the movement and [in the case of the BC Children\u2019s Hospital virtual aquarium] how kids are going to interact with it to help them relax.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In his seven years with the company, one project stands out among the rest for Greenberg.<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Dallas Holocaust Museum, in Texas, enter a room that transforms into a home in eastern Europe at the start of the Holocaust. Survivors share their testimonies as the home becomes no longer a refuge but a backdrop for the projection of scenes of atrocities. Then the screen rises and a holographic version of a survivor engages with the audience.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of hours of interviews with survivors using 360-degree cameras allow for the realistic perspective of meeting these individuals in person. The project, called Dimensions in Testimony and developed in partnership with Steven Spielberg\u2019s USC Shoah Foundation, introduces school groups and other museum visitors to a different survivor and their experiences each week of the year.<\/p>\n