Since 2004, I have designed projection experiences for theater, dance, and live music—work that spans traditional screen-based setups, floor projections, and complex projection mapping onto custom-built surfaces. My approach ranges from precise cue-to-cue synchronization, where every visual shift aligns with a lighting cue or musical phrase, to real-time video jockeying that responds to performers in the moment using live camera feeds and generative imagery. Each mode demands a different kind of listening.
I began this practice at Denison University with “The Death of Ivan Ilych,” a three-screen projection setup unusual for a small black-box theater in 2004. That production established a core principle: projection in live performance is fundamentally collaborative. The technology serves the director’s vision, the performers’ presence, and the audience’s experience. Over two decades, this approach has guided projects as varied as “CONTAINED,” a robotic four-screen installation that toured internationally to Dartington College, England; “Dreaming in Colours,” an eight-movement multimedia chamber work with composer HyeKyung Lee premiered at the Columbus Museum of Art; and the multimedia staging of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” with members of the Columbus Symphony, where I created animated visual scores synchronized to each movement.
My work extends to professional companies including Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance, where I designed a three-screen projection environment for the world premiere of “Cleopatra” at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in Asheville. The production required digital scenography that transformed the stage into multiple ancient-Egypt environments, developed through techniques ranging from traditional compositing to generative AI approaches designed to echo painterly theatrical backdrops. This project exemplifies my commitment to designing projection systems that function as architecture rather than decoration—immersive visual worlds scaled to professional touring venues.
Recent collaborations with theater director James Dennen have expanded this work into mixed realities. “Like Leaves. Like Carrots.” at the Wexner Center for the Arts combined life-sized marionettes, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence in response to Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot.” In that production, projection became not scenery but a dramaturgical layer, shaping the logic of the world alongside puppetry, robotics, and spoken word. The question driving that work—whether human creativity still matters at the edge of technological innovation—continues to inform every collaboration.
My contributions have been recognized with Columbus Alive’s “Best Stage Design” award and multiple Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards. As Director of Collaborative Technologies for the Fine Arts at Denison University since 2001, I maintain a practice grounded in experimentation and partnership across artistic disciplines, working with both emerging artists and established professional companies.
Whether designing digital scenography for a touring ballet company or projecting generative visuals behind a string quartet, my aim remains consistent: to create images that breathe with the performance rather than overpower it. The projector is an instrument. The performance is the music.
2026
Contemporary Sounds Concert (Feb 4)
Sharon Martin Hall, Eisner Center
Christian Faur (visuals), Timothy Hagen, flute (performers)
Featuring guest artist Timothy Hagen, flute and electronics, and accompanied by visuals created by Chris Faur, director of collaborative technologies for the fine arts, Denison’s annual Contemporary Sounds concert series explores the art of storytelling through music.
https://denison.edu/events/event/159768
2025
Mareas/Tides (Nov 5)
Marion Ramirez, Ojeya Cruz Banks, Pete Mills, Christian Faur
Interdisciplinary performance combining dance, storytelling, singing, live music, visual imagery, and improvisation—tracing island cosmologies and diasporic sea geographies (Caribbean/Atlantic/Pacific) through the gravitational pull of the moon. Projections function as a narrative layer alongside the live score and performance.
2024
Like Leaves. Like Carrots (Jan 12, 13)
James Dennen, Christian Faur, Brianna Rhodes, Michael “Blakk Sun” Powell, ETHEL
Interdisciplinary performance responding to Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in “mixed realities” (virtual + actual), with “interference from artificial intelligence.” The piece uses puppetry, robotics, spoken-word storytelling, VR, choreography, and machine intelligence—positioning projections/virtual scenography as a core dramaturgical layer rather than “background.”
https://wexarts.org/performing-arts/james-dennen-christian-faur-brianna-rhodes-michael-blakk-sun-powell-and-ethel
https://denison.edu/academics/theatre/feature/152498
https://wexarts.org/press-release/wexner-center-arts-announces-its-2023-24-performing-arts-seaso
I Exist Project (Feb 2)
Christian Faur (visuals), Denison University Department of Music (performers)
Contemporary Sounds concert collaboration combining live performance with your visuals in Sharon Martin Hall (Eisner Center), built as an integrated music-and-image event rather than accompaniment.
https://denison.edu/academics/music/wh/152736
Critical Theory 1 (May 8, 2023–Jun 30, 2024)
James Dennen, Molly Shanahan, Christian Faur
Virtual theater documentation/loop exploring real-time collaboration in VR through interdisciplinary improvisation; uses theory-focused prose (Pierre Bourdieu) as stimulus for embodied performance in a virtual environment.
https://wexarts.org/performing-arts/james-dennen-and-molly-shanahan
2023
Unheard-of//Ensemble – Ohio Tour (Nov 8)
Unheard-of//Ensemble, HyeKyung Lee (composer), Christian Faur (video artist)
Concert of new works from the Ohio Multimedia Call for Works (Johnstone Fund for New Music), pairing contemporary chamber performance with integrated video art as part of the program’s commissioned multimedia framework.
https://calendar.ohio.edu/event/unheard-ofensemble
Cleopatra (Jul 27, 28, 29)
Heather Maloy, Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance, Christian Faur
World premiere contemporary ballet staged at the Wortham Center (Asheville). Five-screen projection system served as digital scenography, transforming the stage into multiple ancient-Egypt environments; visuals developed through a range of techniques including generative AI approaches designed to echo painterly set backdrops.
https://www.worthamarts.org/events/cleopatra/
HERE US (Feb 23–25)
Christian Faur, Thomas Mauney, Rebecca Baygents Turk
Main-stage multimedia production at Denison’s Eisner Center (Sharon Martin Hall): original student-created performance work across spoken word, movement, music, and media—built as a hybrid stage language (live + cinematic + projected).
https://denison.edu/events/event/146831
Like Leaves. Like Carrots. — work in progress (Jun 2, 3)
James Dennen, Christian Faur, Molly Shanahan, Michael “Blakk Sun” Powell
Early live development showing of the VR-supported response to Waiting for Godot, staged in mixed realities and shaped by AI as part of the Wex residency pipeline that later led to the 2024 main performances.
https://wexarts.org/performing-arts/james-dennen-and-molly-shanahan
2022
HERE US (Mar 4)
Denison Theatre (students and facilitators), Christian Faur
Student-written multimedia performance foregrounding joy, vitality, and complexity through spoken word, music, dance, and digital visual art. Credited role includes video projection design and editorial integration for performance.
Anti-gravity Donuts: Performance and Mixed Realities (Jan 18–Jun 30)
James Dennen, Christian Faur
Wexner Center-supported virtual exploration focused on improvised live performance in tension with virtual reality/digital life onscreen. Credited roles include technology design, Unity programming, and editing—building the virtual performance container and shaping the final media form.
https://wexarts.org/talks-more/james-dennen-anti
https://wexarts.org/explore/james-dennen
2021
Anti-gravity Donuts (Apr 10)
James Dennen, Christian Faur
VR performance moment referenced in project documentation, emerging from pandemic-era constraints and pivoting toward embodied presence and shared-space “risk” through virtual staging.
https://wexarts.org/sites/default/files/anti-gravity_donuts_transcript.pdf
2019
Vivaldi – The Four Seasons (Sep 22)
Sunday at Central, Jennifer Hambrick (poetry), Members of the Columbus Symphony (performers), Christian Faur (VJ/visuals)
Multimedia chamber concert with live VJ visuals and poetry. You created 12 custom photo-montage visual movements (one per musical movement), pacing visuals to tempo/structure and aligning imagery to the seasonal arc and spoken text.
https://www.christianfaur.com/NewSite/2019/09/21/a-new-twist-on-vivaldis-ubiquitous-four-seasons/
2018
I Become We (Nov 8–10)
Michael J. Morris, Momar K. Ndiaye, Matthew Dixon, Christian Faur
Denison Dance Fall Events pairing two works across two spaces: In This Together (Mulberry Gallery, 5:00–8:00 PM) and 4 = 1Ω (Doane Dance Performance Space, 8:00 PM). Your contribution provided technical expertise supporting the productions’ multimedia/production needs.
https://denison.edu/academics/dance/wh/128949
2015
Dreaming in Colours (Feb 15)
HyeKyung Lee (composer), Christian Faur (visual artist), The Canaletto Ensemble
Eight-movement multimedia chamber work blending acoustic instruments, electro-acoustic elements, colored lighting, and video projection; includes a title movement featuring computer-generated music and an original animated film by Faur.
2014
Dreaming in Colours (Oct 12)
HyeKyung Lee (composer), Christian Faur (visual artist), The Canaletto Ensemble
World premiere of the commissioned multimedia chamber work at the Columbus Museum of Art (3:00 PM), followed by a talkback with the artists.
2010
[Stop Sign] language (Mar 18–27)
Eleni Papaleonardos, John Dranschak, Jeanine Thompson, Christian Faur
One-woman performance about communication systems, symbol literacy, and dyslexia—using projection art as an integral theatrical language layer (not an add-on).
Award: Best Stage Design (Available Light Theater, 2010)
https://www.avlt.info/stop-sign-language-by-eleni-papaleonardos
2007
CONTAINED (Feb)
Group MIX, Christian Faur
35-minute multimedia installation/performance investigating “containment” through a portable multi-computer/projection architecture controlled via voice activation. Portable rig included 5 computers, 4 projectors, servomotors, cameras, cabling, screens—forming a robotic four-screen environment for improvisational performance. Presented at Denison University (Burke Black Box).
2006
CONTAINED (Sep)
Group MIX, Christian Faur
Invited presentation at Dartington College of the Arts (DRHA conference, Devon, England); selected for Re-Surfacing exhibit. Early touring context for the robotic four-screen installation/performance.
2004
The Death of Ivan Ilych (Apr)
Dan Bonnell, Cynthia Turnbull, John Ore, Christian Faur
Denison University production of Tolstoy (adapted by Donald Freed). Projection Design + Engineer / Scenery and Projection Design—your first three-screen video projection for theater at Denison, establishing the visual/technical language that later expanded into multi-screen stage environments.