Projection Mapping

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part of Creative Technology · tier 2 · Interactive · 0 pieces of work carry it · 4 crafts it is confused with

The craft, and who hires it

Hired for live events, product launches and brand activations — facade takeovers, stage visuals, mapped product reveals — the show-craft end of experiential marketing where a physical place becomes the canvas.

Designing and delivering visuals projected onto physical surfaces — building facades, stage sets, objects — with the imagery geometry-mapped to fit and transform the surface, creating site-specific immersive spectacle. The craft spans the mapped content design and the spatial/show delivery.

Tag it when…

Tag when the work shows imagery conformed to real-world geometry: projection wrapping a building, object, or stage set; the physical site visibly transformed by mapped light; mapping/show-control craft evident in how the visuals track the surface's edges and forms.

Never tag it when…

Never tag ordinary screen/LED playback of flat content — mapping means the content is fitted to the surface's geometry. The projected ANIMATION itself is Animation › Motion Graphics craft (co-tag both when the motion content is showcased); this node carries the spatial-mapping delivery. Audience-responsive projection also tags Interactive Installations; a watch-only projection show does not. event_coverage is a content_type and never decides this tag — a recap film OF a mapping show still evidences this craft (boundary law).

Easily mistaken for 4 other crafts

Every other page suggests neighbours by similarity. This one navigates by difference: each line names the craft this is confused with, and the rule for telling them apart.

• animation motion graphics — Motion Graphics is the animated content; Projection Mapping is fitting and delivering it onto physical geometry. Flat screen content = Motion Graphics only; surface-conformed projection = this node (usually co-tagged).
• creative technology interactive installations — Projection that RESPONDS to visitors (sensors, touch, movement) adds Interactive Installations; a spectacle the audience only watches stays Projection Mapping alone.
• video production live experiential (Video Production › Live / Experiential) — The recap/case FILM of an event is video craft (filming/editing); the mapped-show build shown IN it is this node — a recap evidences both, co-tag each on its own evidence.
• svc physical experiential (Physical Activations & Experiential, L0) — The experiential SERVICE is the credit/offer tier, never a classify target; the craft leaf for a mapped show is this node.

At what size it applies

ASSET when the item IS the mapping show or its dedicated case film; MOMENT when a mapped-projection beat appears as one segment inside a broader event or brand film.

Where to look next

• The whole services tree — the services index.
• Every other vocabulary — the vocabulary index.
• How work gets credited to a craft — the entities chapter.