ILLUMINATE KENSINGTON
An immersive night of projection mapping and light installations stretching across East Kensington.
On April 3, 2026, a group of 20+ artists took to Frankford avenue in East Kensington for an immersive night of projection mapping, light installations, and live music. This grassroots initiative was presented by Philly’s media art community in partnership with East Kensington Neighbors Association.
This free, accessible event is the first of it’s kind in Philadelphia. Illuminate Kensington garnered attendance in the thousands, received coverage by prominent social media outlets, and was produced through collective action and resource sharing rather than grant money or institutional sponsorship.
In addition to participating as an artist, I was a member of a committee of principal organizers who helped to plan and produce the festival.
Site
I chose to project onto a 30’ x 50’ brick wall featuring a mural in the Philadelphia Brewing Co. Parking lot. This space was a thru-way for attendees at the event, receiving a high amount of foot traffic, and presented an interesting opportunity in projection mapping on the mural. Thus, the features of the surface and the space informed the content I chose to animate and project.
Content
Because of the off center heap of flour sacks featured in the mural, I chose to create compositions that filled this space with imagery - a cloud, a brain, a pile of spaghetti. Rather than fixating on messaging or concept, I used this as an opportunity to be playful, and focus on interesting transitions.
The location, ambient light, and brightness of the projector also dictated the color palette I chose. in my tech check, it was clear that certain colors, particularly highly saturated greens, purples, and reds were the brightest colors the projector could display.
